Sophie E. Hill
LightNews LightNews
banner
sophieehill.bsky.social
Sophie E. Hill
@sophieehill.bsky.social
4.2K followers 2.8K following 1K posts
PoliSci PhD student @ Harvard / 🇬🇧🏳️‍🌈 / Creator of MyLittleCrony.com
Signal: @sehill.11
Posts Replies Media Videos
sophieehill.bsky.social
The journal Sustainability is really stretching the concept of "regression table" in the year of our lord 2025.

Left:
Frankenstein's monster (t-stats vs SEs in parentheses in the same table)

Right:
two rows of values in parentheses after the coefficient... BOGOF?

pubpeer.com/publications...
table with errors annotated table with errors annotated
November 25, 2025 at 3:22 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
question: what thresholds were used to label the coefficients as statistically significant?

answer: yes

pubpeer.com/publications...

pubpeer.com/publications...

pubpeer.com/publications...
table with errors annotated table with errors annotated table with errors annotated composite of all the tables from the other paper, with errors annotated
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
Unfortunately these researchers really need to be reported for cruel and discriminatory treatment of their test statistics...

I mean, look! This poor t-stat -0.53 gets NO STARS, while his almost-identical neighbour -0.52 get TWO STARS.

That's not fair! 😡😠😖
-0.081 (-0.53) -0.229 ** (-0.52)
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
This paper comes courtesy of two researchers at the Northeast Petroleum University in Daqing, China.

They've been on quite a run this year.

As well as this one, they have two more in Sustainability, both accepted in <40 days.
Research on the Impact of Green Technology Innovation on Carbon Emission Reduction Maturity in China: Heterogeneity and Mediating Effect Yi Wang, Shuo Fan* School of Economics and Management, Institute of energy economic, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, 163318, China Received: 12 November 2024 Accepted: 22 February 2025 Does the Integrated Development of High-End, Intelligent, and Green Manufacturing in China Influence Regional Dual Control of Carbon Emissions?—An Analysis Based on Impact Mechanisms and Spatial Effects by Yi WangORCID andShuo Fan *ORCID School of Economics and Management, Institute of Energy Economic, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Sustainability 2025, 17(8), 3659; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17083659 Submission received: 10 March 2025 / Revised: 16 April 2025 / Accepted: 16 April 2025 / Published: 18 April 2025 Spatiotemporal Patterns and Influencing Factors of the “Three Modernizations” Integrated Development in China’s Oil and Gas Industry by Yi Wang andShuo Fan *ORCID School of Economics and Management, Institute of Energy Economic, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Sustainability 2025, 17(22), 10119; https://doi.org/10.3390/su172210119 Submission received: 16 October 2025 / Revised: 6 November 2025 / Accepted: 10 November 2025 / Published: 12 November 2025
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
SIX cases of max < min. It's an epidemic.

And even if we "correct" the table by flipping those around, we'd still have a mean that's not contained in [min, max], plus his Large Adult Son, SD = 3.409 (bigger than the range!)

So maybe for that row in particular, they switched min/max AND mean/sd?
annotated table
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
your daily dose

#FablesofFlummeryStatistics
table
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
The top search results for "Claire Pan" "Cornell University" point to someone who majored in "Applied Economics and Management" and graduated with an undergraduate degree in 2020.

If this is the right person, then she reviewed this paper (Mar/Apr 2022) while working at a venture capital firm... 🤔
Google search results Claire Pan - Chief Operating Officer @ Arena LinkedIn · Claire Pan 3.9k+ followers New York, New York, United States · Chief Operating Officer · Arena Chief Operating Officer @ Arena · Experience: Arena · Education: Cornell University · Location: New York · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Claire Pan's ... Claire Pan '20 - Einhorn Center for Community Engagement Einhorn Center for Community Engagement https://einhorn.cornell.edu › our-network › claire-pan-20 Claire Pan '20. Major. Applied Economics and Management. College/School ... 300 Kennedy Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Cornell land ... linkedin screenshot linked in screenshot
November 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
There are very few scholars involved in this Research Topic (as editors, reviewers or authors) who are NOT at an institution in China.

One notable exception is "Claire Pan, Cornell University", who reviewed this paper: www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...
November 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
This paper is part of a Frontiers "Research Topic" co-edited by Wenqiu Ma, Guanghui Jiang and Yanbo Qu, in which:

WM edits a paper by GJ & YQ
YQ edits a paper by WM & GJ
WM edits / YQ reviews a paper by GJ
WM, GJ, YQ were previously coauthors

www.frontiersin.org/research-top...
Responses of Land-Use Changes to Drought and its Disparate Impact on Livelihoods of Farmers and Herders in the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Northwestern China Bailin Zhang, R 18 Mixed Land Uses and Community Decline: Opportunities and Challenges for Mitigating Residential Vacancy in Peri-Urban Villages of China Wenqiu Ma, Guanghui Jiang, Tao Zhou and Ruijuan Zhang 60 A Spatial Patterns Identification Method of Rural Residential Land Change Integrating Dynamic and Multi-Scale Information Guanghui Jiang, Tianqian Chen, Ruijuan Zhang, Yaya Tian and Siduo Wu Geographic identification, spatial differentiation, and formation mechanism of multifunction of rural settlements: A case study of 804 typical villages in Shandong … Y Qu, G Jiang, Q Zhao, W Ma, R Zhang, Y Yang Journal of Cleaner Production, 2017•Elsevier
November 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
well knock me down with a feather! you're telling me this paper was published in that bastion of credibility, Frontiers in Environmental Science??

shurely shome mishtake?

www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article Front. Environ. Sci., 15 July 2022 Sec. Land Use Dynamics Volume 10 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.956644 Resource and Environment Constraints and Promotion Strategies of Rural Vitality: An Empirical Analysis of Rural Revitalization Model Towns
November 24, 2025 at 10:18 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
❌ Error 1 (level: EASY)

Solid waste has mean (0.624) > max (0.525)

❌ Error 2 (level: MEDIUM)

Solid waste and fiscal revenue have SD > range/2

0.53 > (0.525-0.1)/2 = 0.2125
0.926 > (1.2-0.024)/2 = 0.588
annotated table
November 24, 2025 at 10:18 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
(in case you were wondering)
Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more flummery /ˈflʌm(ə)ri/ noun 1. meaningless or insincere flattery or conventions. "she hated the flummery of public relations" 2. a sweet dish made with beaten eggs, milk, sugar, and flavourings.
November 24, 2025 at 10:18 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
Good morning!

Today is a day ending in "y", which means I found another mathematically-impossible Table of Summary Statistics in a peer-reviewed "green economics" paper!

What can you see? 🔎

#FablesofFlummeryStatistics
Table
November 24, 2025 at 10:18 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
readers of @forbetterscience.bsky.social might recognize the editor on this paper...
Edited by: Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary Salesmen of Green Economy Bullshit By Alexander Magazinov In this post, we are going on an incomplete tour around a papermill ring, on top of which, seemingly, sits one Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, an Iranian with a Japanese affiliation. Other notable actors (more-or-less, "members of the papermill executive board," as a good approximation of their status) are Muhammad Mohsin, Muhammad Umair, Lei Chang and Azer Dilanchiev, the latter calling himself "the top economist of Georgia."
November 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
and here's the paper (open-access):

www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
next up we have one coefficient that looks off by a factor of 10.

god knows how that happened. but the lesson, as ever, is ABP (Always Be Plotting)

plot your raw data. plot your summary statistics. plot your model coefficients. plot your enemy's downfall. plot your residuals.
table 5 table 5 plot
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
and that tortured phrase was NOT an "abnormal sample point", aka an "outlier" 😅
Tortured phrases This paper appears to contain several tortured phrases. Observed Expected reverse osmosis process reverse technology spillover intermediate commodities intermediate goods segmentation points cut points abnormal sample points outliers unexpected output undesirable output input redundancy slack input slack vigorous vitality robust growth
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
"reverse osmosis process" appears to be a tortured phrase

(original phrase was probably: "reverse technology spillover")
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
so naturally i had a look for other red flags in the paper.

can you see anything wrong in this paragraph?

(DISCLAIMER: Several English language phrases were harmed in the making of this paper.)
5.1 Estimation of Full Sample From the regression results of the whole sample in Table 3, the fixed effect regression results show that ICT-based digital trade has no significant inhibitory effect on GTFP. The quantile regression results also support this finding, reflecting a weak negative significant impact (H1 confirmed). This may be related to the periodicity and interval of the spillover effect of digital technology (Chen et al., 2019). Digital trade basically follows the reverse osmosis process of the “three-two-one” industry. Based on digital technology innovation with a great application value such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, it has gradually penetrated into the value creation process of the secondary industry in recent years. Human capital has a negative significant effect in the fixed effect, while its negative impact becomes insignificant in the panel quantile regression. The level of technological R&D plays a positive role in promoting GTFP in all the models. The infrastructure and population density also have a significant positive impact on GTFP, but the impact intensity of the infrastructure decreases from a low quantile to high quantile, while the influencing intensity of the population density increases. This may be that China’s regional agglomeration economy is still enjoying the dividend of increasing returns to scale (Haftu, 2019).
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
crunching the numbers for ya
Deviation Mean=Standard Deviation Variance = Min 2 Variance=Min ​2 ​​ (up to rounding error) Row Symbol Min Min^2 Variance 3 HC 0.9851 0.9704 0.9705 4 RD 1.0548 1.1126 1.1127 5 INF 4.6104 21.2558 21.2563 Note the expected relationship ( Variance = Standard Deviation 2 Variance=Standard Deviation ​2 ​​ ) holds in rows 1, 2, 6: Row Symbol Std Dev Std Dev^2 Variance 1 GTFP 0.5595 0.3130 0.3131 2 IDT 16.9162 286.1578 286.1603 6 PD 1.3445 1.8077 1.8077 What happened? It looks like the values for Mean were accidentally copied across into Standard Deviation for rows 3-5 only, pushing the true values for Standard Deviation into the Min column.
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
this example is unusual because there are a few breadcrumbs indicating what went wrong...

* Means got duplicated in SD column
* SD values appear in Min column (or at least, these values = sqrt(var))
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
rows 1, 2, 6 look ok ✅

but rows 3, 4, 5 have:

mean > max
min > max

!!
annotated table 1
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
lads i found ANOTHER Table of Impossible Summary Statistics in a "green economics" paper 🚩

Can you see the problem?
Table 1
November 22, 2025 at 2:29 PM
sophieehill.bsky.social
Interesting. The ones I'm reading are definitely *not* well-written, though my initial sample was retracted papers. Any good examples you could share?

The questions that are still bugging me...
Topic: Why so much focus on "green econ"? Could easily apply the template to other variables. Always recommending pro-green policies too. Greenwashing? Signalling credibility? Data: What's the deal with these impossible summary statistics (e.g. mean > max)? I've found multiple examples. Transcription errors? Data fabrication? (But why bother, downloading data from World Bank takes 2 seconds and the conclusions never depend on the results anyway!) Network coordination: Frontiers uncovered a big international network subverting peer review. How coordinated was this activity? Bilateral quid pro quos vs centralized hierarchy? Network boundaries: How much do these networks overlap with "legitimate" researchers/institutions? Some overlap is illusory due to exaggeration (e.g. prof in Saudi lists "visiting scholar at Oxford" for years). Some via satellite campuses (e.g. Birmingham-Dubai). Are legitimate scholars aware of these networks? Is there a "cordon sanitaire"?
November 21, 2025 at 10:39 AM
sophieehill.bsky.social
OpenAlex search results for "nexus" under the Energy/Environment/Economic Growth category:

openalex.org/works?page=1...

Check out the frequent fliers: 1/3rd of ALL of Bekun's published papers have "nexus" in title or abstract!
Authors with most "nexus" EEG papers
November 21, 2025 at 1:12 AM