APA Dictionary of Psychology

a transformation of raw data that involves (a) replacing the original data units with their reciprocals and (b) analyzing the modified data. It can be used with nonzero data and is commonly used when distributions have skewness or clear outliers. For example, if the original unit of a study variable is time, a researcher might transform the raw data to produce an analysis of rate. Unlike other transformations, a reciprocal transformation changes the order of the original data. Also called inverse transformation.