Rate My Professor Fiona Fidler

Professor Fiona Fidler is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne, holding a joint appointment in the School of BioSciences, Faculty of Science. She completed her PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne in 2006, with a thesis entitled 'From Statistical Significance to Effect Estimation: Statistical Reform in Psychology, Medicine and Ecology.' Her undergraduate degree is an honours in Psychology with a second major in Sociology. Early in her career, she held an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship in the School of Psychological Science at La Trobe University from 2007 to 2010. Subsequently, she served as Senior Research Fellow in the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Assessment (CEBRA) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) at the University of Melbourne from 2011 to 2014, and in the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Group at RMIT University in 2015. As an ARC Future Fellow (FT150100297), she advanced to Professor, leading initiatives in metascience. Within the university, she has been Head of the History and Philosophy of Science Program, Deputy Associate Dean (Research Grants) in the Faculty of Arts, and from January 2026, Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Arts.

Fidler's research as a philosopher of science centers on the dynamics of methodological change, statistical controversies such as Null Hypothesis Significance Testing, metascience, reproducibility, open science, peer review improvement, and expert reasoning and decision-making. She leads the repliCATS project evaluating research quality and reproducibility in social and behavioural sciences including psychology, economics, and sociology. She co-leads the Interdisciplinary MetaResearch Group (MetaMelb/IMeRG), fostering collaborative efforts to enhance scientific credibility. Her highly cited publications include 'Redefine statistical significance' (Benjamin et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2018), 'Error bars in experimental biology' (Cumming, Fidler & Vaux, Journal of Cell Biology, 2007), 'Eliciting expert knowledge in conservation science' (Martin et al., Conservation Biology, 2012), 'Researchers misunderstand confidence intervals and standard error bars' (Belia et al., Psychological Methods, 2005), and 'Editors can lead researchers to confidence intervals, but can't make them think' (Fidler et al., Psychological Science, 2004). Fidler received the 2022 Faculty of Arts Dean's Award for Research. Her interdisciplinary work has impacted statistical reform, conservation decision-making, and research practices across psychology, ecology, medicine, and beyond.