HOW TO GET WRONG RESULTS FROM GOOD EXPERIMENTAL-DATA - A SURVEY OF INCORRECT APPLICATIONS OF REGRESSION

Examples are given from older and more recent literature (kinetics, io nization equilibria, complex formation in solution, dipole moment dete rmination, thermochemistry, resonance energies, NMR shifts, photoelect ron spectroscopy) where experimental data were processed in an incorre ct way from the point of view of statistics, The results were more or less biased, sometimes completely wrong, Corrected procedures, based e ntirely on the least-squares method, are reported; in several cases me thods are proposed, Some hints are given as to how these mistakes can be avoided, how they can be revealed in the literature and how the lit erature data can be recalculated: the last task is the most difficult. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.