Please do not report the average of a bimodal distribution

The authors of Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience state, “Our results indicate that the average statistical power of studies in the field of neuroscience is probably no more than between ~8% and ~31% …”

That is an unacceptable statement[1] given the bimodal distribution of their data. Average (i.e., mean) is a measure of central tendency. Bimodal distributions do not have a central tendency (by definition). That statement reduces the richness of their data to the point of distortion.

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1. It is irrelevant they report a range instead of a point estimate.  ↩