Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.
Interpretation
Positive results are preferentially published over negative ones, undermining trust in medical evidence.
This quote by Ben Goldacre highlights a significant bias in the publication practices of medical research, where studies that yield positive findings are more likely to be published than those with negative findings. This imbalance can lead to a distorted understanding of medical evidence, inhibiting genuine progress and improvement in healthcare, as important negative outcomes may be overlooked.
In practice
In a research talk, one could quote Goldacre to emphasize the importance of transparency in scientific publishing.
Teaching needs an ecosystem that supports evidence-based practice. It will need better systems to disseminate the results of research more widely, but also a better understanding of research, so that teachers can be critical consumers of evidence.
Yes. I'm a doctor, an epidemiologist, and lots of my professional colleagues flip back and forth between industry and medical roles. I know them; they are not bad people. But it is possible for good people in bad systems to do things that inflict enormous harm.
The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.
It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them.
Economics is not an exact science. It's a combination of an art and elements of science. And that's almost the first and last lesson to be learned about economics: that in my judgment, we are not converging toward exactitude, but we're improving our data bases and our ways of reasoning about them.
And I don't care what else anyone has ever told you, the Sun is white, not yellow. Human color perception is a complicated business, but if the Sun were yellow, like a yellow lightbulb, then white stuff such as snow would reflect this light and appear yellow-a snow condition confirmed to happen only near fire hydrants.
Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.
In todayβs vastly expanded scientific enterprise, obsessed with impact factors and competition, we will need much more night science to unveil the many mysteries that remain about the workings of organisms.
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