HPLC_Greg said:

The part it does not cover is what to do when the honest answer is "not enough data", which is more often than anyone likes.

Same pattern here, and in the same order. I had assumed I was the exception until I read this.

HPLC_Greg said:

The part it does not cover is what to do when the honest answer is "not enough data", which is more often than anyone likes.

There is a second half to this that has not been said yet. It is worth asking what the claim would look like if it were false. If nothing would look different, it is not a claim about the world and no amount of discussion will settle it.

One concrete data point for the thread. One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number. A figure without its method cannot be checked, and an unchecked figure is how this community accumulates folklore.

A narrower follow-up, since the general answer is now clear:

How would you tell the difference between that and the alternative explanation?

anders_CPH said:

One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number.

Filing a mild objection. Mild because I might be wrong; an objection because nobody has addressed the case that does not fit. Filing an objection on the n=1 problem. Personal experience is genuine evidence about one person and very weak evidence about anybody else, and this thread keeps promoting the first into the second.