I am looking for a word which describes results or conclusions which don't inspire confidence because they were reached using poor quality data or a faulty procedure. The feeling I am trying to convey is something that can't be trusted or relied on to be correct.
If the data is of poor quality, the conclusions reached by the study might be inaccurate, misleading, or [insert word here].
Best Answer
"If the data is of poor quality, the conclusions reached by the study might be inaccurate, misleading, or [insert word here]"
The possible choices are: i) untrustworthy ii) unreliable iii) unreproducible iv) biased v) erroneous vi) weak vii) unrealistic viii) flawed ix) unstable (for models based on the data)
Some of these words are taken from the following articles:
1 ) "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False"
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
2) "Erroneous laboratory results: what clinicians need to know" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17882852
3) "Missing, Biased, and Unrepresentative: The Quantitative Analysis of Multisource Biographical Data"
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01615440209601206