Statistical power: An historical introduction

Despite the funding agencies growing demands towards power analyses, we believe researchers are still not fully aware of the statistical power concept, of the possible benefits of power analysis in the planning phase and of the ways to increase the chances of significantly detecting a given effect in their study. The following review falls within this area of interest. We discuss the history of the concept of statistical power, the reasons for its ongoing neglect, its potential benefits to researchers, as well as actual ways to improve statistical power. We also touch upon the subject of the impact of power analysis on the scientific literature.