What to do if there is publication bias?

Publication bias may be reduced by journals by publishing high-quality studies regardless of novelty or unexciting results, and by publishing protocols or full-study data sets.

How do you deal with publication bias?

Bias can be minimized by (1) insisting on high-quality research and thorough literature reviews, (2) eliminating the double standard concerning peer review and informed consent applied to clinical research and practice, (3) publishing legitimate trials regardless of their results, (4) requiring peer reviewers to ...

How do you account for publication bias?

One way to detect publication bias in your meta-analysis is to use funnel plots and statistical tests. A funnel plot is a scatter plot of the effect sizes of the studies versus their standard errors or sample sizes.

What are the consequences of publication bias?

In the presence of publication bias, belief in the relationship increases artificially and iteratively with each positive publication. This, in turn, diminishes the credibility of hypothesis testing because it is based on biased information, and calls into question the integrity of the entire experimental framework.

What are the methods for publication bias?

Of the methods available to researchers for the detection of publication bias, one of the simplest is the funnel plot. This is a scatterplot of the estimate of effect from each study in the meta-analysis against a measure of its precision, usually 1/SE (Figure 1A).

Understanding Publication Bias in Research

How do you deal with publication bias in meta-analysis?

If you identified bias in your meta-analysis, the next step is to conduct sensitivity analyses by running several publication bias correction tests. This will help you assess the reliability of the results under different assumptions and correction methods.

What is the best test for publication bias?

Egger's test is commonly used to assess potential publication bias in a meta-analysis via funnel plot asymmetry (Egger's test is a linear regression of the intervention effect estimates on their standard errors weighted by their inverse variance).

What is the main cause of publication bias?

Of the several reasons of this bias the important ones are rejection (by editors, reviewers), lack of interest to revise, competing interests, lack of motivation to write in spite of conducting the study.

What is publication bias and why is it a problem?

A problem inherent in any method of article retrieval is publication bias. Publication bias refers to the phenomenon that studies published in peer-refereed journals are much more likely to report statistically significant results than are studies that report a nonsignificant conclusion, especially for smaller studies.

Is publication bias intentional?

Bias may be introduced intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously, into the process of research dissemination. 3,18 The dissemination profile of research may be influenced by investigators, study sponsors, peer reviewers, and journal editors.

What is a real life example of publication bias?

Publication Bias: is when certain types of studies are published over others. A real-life example of publication bias is a study was published about an antidepressant that was not approved for use in the U.S., but has been approved in other countries.

How is publication bias an ethical issue?

Apparently, publication bias poses serious threats to the integrity of scientific research. It prevents us from consuming objective, true, and unbiased research, and introduces much error in what we read and believe. Thus, publication bias and relevant topics should be addressed in research ethics modules and courses.

How do you challenge a bias?

What is an example of publication bias in research?

Publication bias occurs when one type of study result is more likely to be published than another. For example, publishing results of studies that show a new treatment provides significant benefits, but not always publishing studies that show less or no benefit, will lead to publication bias.

What type of bias is publication bias?

Publication bias is a type of reporting bias and closely related to dissemination bias, although dissemination bias generally applies to all forms of results dissemination, not simply journal publications.

Why is there a publication bias against no effect?

Publication bias can also arise from decisions of journal editors and peer reviewers to reject studies with null results because: “negative results have never made riveting reading”; the study may be similar to the peer-reviewer's own work; they may be biased against research in different fields; or because studies ...

How do you avoid author bias?

Is reporting bias the same as publication bias?

Reporting bias (publication bias or outcome reporting bias) occurs when the decision to report depends on the direction or magnitude of the findings. In clinical research, registration of trials prior to data collection is used to prevent selective reporting ( Chan et al., 2017; Gopal et al., 2018).

Why is bias bad in articles?

Research bias results from any deviation from the truth, causing distorted results and wrong conclusions. Bias can occur at any phase of your research, including during data collection, data analysis, interpretation, or publication.

What is the funnel test for publication bias?

If there is publication bias, then studies with low precision that have negative or non-significant results will be missing from the plot because they were not published, producing a funnel plot that is asymmetric. Identifying funnel plot asymmetry may therefore suggest the possibility of publication bias.

Does publication bias cause heterogeneity?

Our results show that the effect of publication bias on the Q test and assessment of heterogeneity is large, complex, and nonlinear. Publication bias can both dramatically decrease and increase heterogeneity in true effect size, particularly if the number of studies is large and population effect size is small.

What are the three steps to fight bias?

How do you fix implicit bias?

Seek opportunities to engage in discussions in safe environments, spend time with people outside your usual social groups, or volunteer in a community different than your own. Emotional regulation Reflect on your “gut feelings” and negative reactions to people from different social groups.

What are the violation of publication ethics?

Publication ethics are violated by all those activities which threaten the integrity of the research publication process. These include authors dispute, fake affiliations, conflicts of interest, dual submissions, duplicate pub- lication, plagiarism, salami slicing, fabrication and fal- sification1.

How to avoid the violation of ethics in research and publication?

Carefulness. Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection, research design, and correspondence with agencies or journals.