Sunday Data/Statistics Link Roundup (3/11)

1. This is the big one. ESPN has opened up access to their API! It looks like there may only be access to some of the data for the general public though, does anyone know more? 
2. Looks like ESPN isn’t the only sports-related organization in the API mood, Nike plans to open up an API too. It would be great if they had better access to individual, downloadable data. 
3. Via Leonid K.: a highly influential psychology study failed to replicate in a study published in PLoS One. The author of the original study went off on the author of the paper, on PLoS One, and on the reporter who broke the story (including personal attacks!). It looks like the authors of the PLoS One paper actually did a more careful study than the original authors to me. The authors of the PLoS One paper, the reporter, and the editor of PLoS One all replied in a much more reasonable way. See this excellent summary for all the details. Here are a few choice quotes from the comments: 

1. But there’s a long tradition in social psychology of experiments as parables,

2. I’d love to write a really long response, but let’s just say: priming methods like these fail to replicate all the time (frequently in my own studies), and the news that one of Bargh’s studies failed to replicate is not surprising to me at all.

3. This distinction between direct and conceptual replication helps to explain why a psychologist isn’t particularly concerned whether Bargh’s finding replicates or not.