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Medical Editors' Refusal to Publish Non-Significant Results May Lead to Publication Bias
26th September 2022 By MARS Research Hub
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Introduction: What is Publication Bias and How Does it Affect Medical Research?

keywords: publication bias, medical research, biostatistics, medical editor

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of publication bias, its implications for medical research, and how it can be addressed.

Publication bias is a phenomenon where studies with statistically significant results are more likely to be published than studies with nonsignificant results. This can lead to the false perception that there are more statistically significant findings than there really are. Publication bias has been documented in many fields, including clinical trials and medical research.

Publication bias can lead to false perceptions about the efficacy of treatments or interventions and may lead clinicians to prescribe treatments that are ineffective or even harmful. It also leads researchers to pursue lines of inquiry that may be unproductive because they were shown in past publications to produce significant results when in reality these past findings were due only to publication bias.

What is the Impact of Medical Editors Refusing to Publish Non-significant Results?

keywords: publication bias in medical research, publication bias in medicine, non-significant results

Publication bias is a phenomenon in which studies with positive or statistically significant results are more likely to be published, while studies that do not show any significant result are less likely to be published.

Medical editors refusing to publish non-significant results will increase publication bias in medical research. This is because editors will only publish papers that show the significance and reject papers that don't.

How Can Medical Researchers Address Publication Bias?

keywords: journal editors, the peer review process

Medical researchers are doing a lot of good work but the results of their research are not being published. This is because of publication bias. The peer review process is biased and favors studies that find a significant difference in treatment or an effect.

Researchers have tried to address this issue by changing the way they write up their results and by making journals more transparent about how they select which studies to publish.