BIAS IN RESEARCH PUBLICATION CREATES “FALSE MEDICAL TRUTHS”

The publication of research findings in scientific and medical journals may be leading to significant overstatement of the efficacy of treatments, a new study released today has found.

The study of 525 unique publications looking at 1,359 animal experiments of 16 stroke interventions found that there was significant bias towards selection of positive papers for publication.

The six-year study spanning Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands estimated that an additional 214 experiments had been conducted but not reported, with the nett affect being a seven percent absolute or 31 percent relative overestimation of the efficacy of treatments in animal models of human disease.

Prof David Howells of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes said, “If data about experiments in animal models of human diseases is being collected but not published, we are concerned that we are creating false medical truths about treatments that will affect us.

These false truths eventually are filtered down to being taught to our undergraduate science and medical students, and become reading material for existing practitioners,”

“We estimate that around one sixth of experiments remain unpublished,” Prof Howells said. “The consequences of drawing erroneous conclusions, based on incomplete scientific literature, are particularly troubling if unnecessary and potentially risky clinical trials are conducted as a result.”

Prof Howells went on to say that even though the research conducted by he and his colleagues focused on animal models of treatments in stroke, it is probable that publication bias has an important impact in other animal disease models, and more broadly in the life sciences.

The study suggests that scientists, journal editors and funders of research are more likely to be enthusiastic about publishing research with “positive” results than “neutral” findings.

Of the 525 publications examined, only 10 published papers reported no effect of treatment on animals.

The study was released today in the highly regarded international journal ‘Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology’.