Too much statistical wizardry?

Tired of reading about another study that uses a ‘novel’ statistical method where a much more common method would’ve sufficed? Me too – It seems like the a significant portion of articles I’ve been read recently across the big ecological journals suffer from this problem. Don’t get me wrong- I love new statistical ideas and methods and am always keen to do a road test, I just think there is too much emphasis and pressure to apply and develop new statistical techniques. It appears I’m not alone in thinking this:

Hopefully reviewers (and authors) can start to break this cycle……