P-curve

Distribution

Usually only a single p-value relating to a hypothesis is observed, so the p-value is interpreted by a significance test, and no effort is made to estimate the distribution it was drawn from. When a collection of p-values are available (e.g. when considering a group of studies on the same subject), the distribution of significant p-values is sometimes called a p-curve. A p-curve can be used to assess the reliability of scientific literature, such as by detecting publication bias or p-hacking.