Slide deck: Biases in publication and reporting

Publication bias refers to a phenomenon in scientific reporting whereby authors are more likely to submit and journal editors are more likely to publish studies with “positive” results (i.e. results showing a significant finding) than studies with “negative” (i.e. supporting the null hypothesis) or unsupportive results. 

Due to such a bias, important—albeit negative—results (e.g., a study showing that a new treatment is ineffective) may never reach the larger scientific community.