287
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    1
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science

      other
      * , ,
      PLoS Medicine
      Public Library of Science

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          John Ioannidis and colleagues argue that the current system of publication in biomedical research provides a distorted view of the reality of scientific data.

          Related collections

          Most cited references46

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Priorities in Scientific Discovery: A Chapter in the Sociology of Science

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Publication bias and clinical trials.

            A study was performed to evaluate the extent to which the medical literature may be misleading as a result of selective publication of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) with results showing a statistically significant treatment effect. Three hundred eighteen authors of published trials were asked whether they had participated in any unpublished RCTs. The 156 respondents reported 271 unpublished and 1041 published trials. Of the 178 completed unpublished RCTs with a trend specified, 26 (14%) favored the new therapy compared to 423 of 767 (55%) published reports (p less than 0.001). For trials that were completed but not published, the major reasons for nonpublication were "negative" results and lack of interest. From the data provided, it appears that nonpublication was primarily a result of failure to write up and submit the trial results rather than rejection of submitted manuscripts. The results of this study imply the existence of a publication bias of importance both to meta-analysis and the interpretation of statistically significant positive trials.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Publication bias: evidence of delayed publication in a cohort study of clinical research projects.

              To determine the extent to which publication is influenced by study outcome. A cohort of studies submitted to a hospital ethics committee over 10 years were examined retrospectively by reviewing the protocols and by questionnaire. The primary method of analysis was Cox's proportional hazards model. University hospital, Sydney, Australia. 748 eligible studies submitted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Ethics Committee between 1979 and 1988. Time to publication. Response to the questionnaire was received for 520 (70%) of the eligible studies. Of the 218 studies analysed with tests of significance, those with positive results (P or = 0.10) (hazard ratio 2.32 (95% confidence interval 1.47 to 3.66), P = 0.0003), with a significantly shorter time to publication (median 4.8 v 8.0 years). This finding was even stronger for the group of 130 clinical trials (hazard ratio 3.13 (1.76 to 5.58). P = 0.0001), with median times to publication of 4.7 and 8.0 years respectively. These results were not materially changed after adjusting for other significant predictors of publication. Studies with indefinite conclusions (0.05 < or = P < 0.10) tended to have an even lower publication rate and longer time to publication than studies with negative results (hazard ratio 0.39 (0.13 to 1.12), P = 0.08). For the 103 studies in which outcome was rated qualitatively, there was no clear cut evidence of publication bias, although the number of studies in this group was not large. This study confirms the evidence of publication bias found in other studies and identifies delay in publication as an additional important factor. The study results support the need for prospective registration of trials to avoid publication bias and also support restricting the selection of trials to those started before a common date in undertaking systematic reviews.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                PLoS Med
                pmed
                plme
                plosmed
                PLoS Medicine
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1549-1277
                1549-1676
                October 2008
                7 October 2008
                : 5
                : 10
                : e201
                Author notes
                * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: youngns@ 123456mail.nih.gov
                Article
                08-PLME-ES-1446R3
                10.1371/journal.pmed.0050201
                2561077
                18844432
                7cb8cc5e-4fb5-44e8-a83a-d2a8e8b9f8b1
                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
                History
                Page count
                Pages: 5
                Categories
                Essay
                Science Policy
                Medical Journals
                Health Economics
                Epidemiology
                Communication in Health Care
                Academic Medicine
                Custom metadata
                Young NS, Ioannidis JPA, Al-Ubaydli O (2008) Why current publication practices may distort science. PLoS Med 5(10): e201. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050201

                Medicine
                Medicine

                Comments

                Comment on this article