Hacker News Reader

What is the sampling bias? You dont explain what it could be, and your quote doesn't give any clues about what the bias could be.

View on HN

The article itself talks about this self-selection/sampling bias due to a minuscule sample size of 813 people. Reducing “science community” to such a small sample is not convincing.

Self-selections, sure, that's a risk with any and all surveys and questionnaires, which must be mentioned.

But 813? Why wouldn't that be enough? Basic stats puts that at a very healthy number for most questions, and the researchers don't raise any questions about bias about the number.

> The paper failed both to identify the overall number of scientists using X or the cases where multiple platforms are used (most common scenario)

That would not indicate bias. It's merely beyond the reach of what was in the study.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com