Delayed publication of negative results may bias reviews

Trials with significant results are more likely to be published than those with negative results. On p 640 Stern and Simes report the outcome in a cohort of clinical studies approved by an Australian hospital over 10 years. They confirmed that studies with significant, or positive, results were more likely to be published and also to be published earlier than negative studies. This applied particularly to clinical trials. These results provide a strong argument for the need to register prospectively clinical trials and to select studies for systematic reviews from trial registries.


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Risk of surgery for inflammatory bowel disease: record linkage studies

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