alterlab-results-transparency

name	alterlab-results-transparency
description	Enforces results-reporting transparency as a discipline gate built on the Iron Law "NO RESULTS CLAIM WITHOUT REPORTING EVERY ANALYSIS RUN" — a numbered Gate Function (IDENTIFY the claim, LIST every test actually run including the ones that did not "work", CHECK assumptions were reported, CHECK effect size with 95% CI is present, CHECK pre-registration deviations are disclosed, ONLY THEN write the sentence), plus an Excuse-vs-Reality table and Red-Flags-STOP list for selective reporting, cherry-picking, and bare p-values. Use when writing up Results, claiming a finding from a subset of analyses, reporting a p-value without an effect size or confidence interval, dropping outliers post hoc, or omitting analyses that did not pan out. Orchestrates alterlab-statistical-analysis (tests, effect sizes), alterlab-preregistration-discipline (the frozen plan), and alterlab-open-science (TOP, disclosure); it does not run the tests itself. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.
license	MIT
allowed-tools	Read Bash(python:*)
compatibility	No API key required. Judgment/discipline skill; the optional reporting-gate helper runs locally via `uv run python` (stdlib only).
metadata	{"skill-author":"AlterLab","version":"1.0.0"}

Results Transparency — The Reporting Discipline Gate

Skill type: DISCIPLINE-ENFORCING. This skill is not a how-to for running statistics. It is a gate that stands between analyses you ran and the sentence you are about to write in the Results section. It exists to stop the single most common integrity failure in quantitative write-ups: reporting the analyses that "worked" and quietly dropping the rest.

It orchestrates, it does not reimplement:

• REQUIRED BACKGROUND — alterlab-statistical-analysis runs the tests, checks assumptions (its alterlab-statistical-analysis/scripts/assumption_checks.py), computes effect sizes and CIs, and produces the APA-formatted numbers. This skill checks that those outputs are all present and disclosed before a claim is written.
• REQUIRED BACKGROUND — alterlab-preregistration-discipline owns the frozen plan. This skill checks that confirmatory claims match it and that deviations are labelled.
• alterlab-open-science owns the disclosure mechanics (TOP Guidelines, registration links, data/code availability).
• alterlab-scientific-thinking owns judging evidence quality; this skill only enforces reporting completeness.

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The Iron Law

NO RESULTS CLAIM WITHOUT REPORTING EVERY ANALYSIS RUN

Violating the letter of full reporting is violating the spirit of the science. "Reporting every analysis" means every test you actually executed against the data for this hypothesis — including the ones that returned p > .05, the specification you abandoned, and the outlier rule you tried first. A Results section is a census of what you did, not a highlight reel of what confirmed you.

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When to Use This Skill

Invoke it the moment a results claim is being written or defended:

• About to write a sentence in the Results / Findings section.
• Stating "we found that…", "X significantly predicted Y", "there was no effect".
• Reporting a p-value, a coefficient, a group difference, or a correlation.
• Defending a finding drawn from a subset of the analyses that were run.
• Tempted to drop outliers, switch a test, or add a covariate after seeing the result.
• Writing the abstract's results sentence or a figure caption that asserts a finding.

If you are choosing which test to run, checking assumptions, or an effect size, that is — come back here when you move from computing numbers to claiming findings.