Publication bias: What is it? How do we measure it? How do we avoid it?

Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials

Volumn 5, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 71-81

  Song, Fujian ^a   Hooper, Lee ^a   Loke, Yoon K ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Evidence synthesis; Meta analysis; Publication bias; Reporting bias; Research dissemination bias; Systematic review

Indexed keywords

ACCESS TO INFORMATION; CLINICAL PROTOCOL; CLINICAL RESEARCH; CLINICAL STUDY; COHORT ANALYSIS; DATA ANALYSIS; DATA SYNTHESIS; HUMAN; INFORMATION DISSEMINATION; MEDICAL LITERATURE; PROSPECTIVE STUDY; PUBLISHING; QUALITY CONTROL; REGISTRATION; REVIEW; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS; SYSTEMATIC ERROR;

EID: 84889824359     PISSN: None     EISSN: 11791586     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2147/OAJCT.S34419     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. Bastian H, Glasziou P, Chalmers I. Seventy-five trials and eleven systematic reviews a day: how will we ever keep up? PLoS Med. 2010;7(9):e1000326.
2. Chalmers I, Glasziou P. Avoidable waste in the production and reporting of research evidence. Lancet. 2009;374(9683):86-89.
3. Song F, Parekh S, Hooper L, etal. Dissemination and publication of research findings: an updated review of related biases. Health Technol Assess. 2010;14(8):iii, ix-xi, 1-193.
4. Rosenthal R. The "file drawer problem" and tolerance for null results. Psychol Bull. 1979;86(3):638-641.
5. Dwan K, Gamble C, Kolamunnage-Dona R, Mohammed S, Powell C, Williamson PR. Assessing the potential for outcome reporting bias in a review: a tutorial. Trials. 2010;11:52.
6. Scherer RW, Langenberg P, von Elm E. Full publication of results initially presented in abstracts. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007;(2): MR000005.
7. Dickersin K. The existence of publication bias and risk factors for its occurrence. JAMA. 1990;263(10):1385-1389.
8. Boisen E. Testicular size and shape of 47, XYY and 47, XXY men in a double-blind, double-matched population survey. Am J Hum Genet. 1979;31(6):697-703.
9. Doshi P, Jones M, Jefferson T. Rethinking credible evidence synthesis. BMJ. 2012;344:d7898.
10. Main J, Reddy L, Lazarevic M, Whelan PJ. Are late-onset eating disorders in the elderly really the more common variant? Concerns around publication bias. Int Psychogeriatr. 2011;23(4):670-671.
11. Song F, Eastwood AJ, Gilbody S, Duley L, Sutton AJ. Publication and related biases. Health Technol Assess. 2000;4(10):1-115.
12. Chan AW, Hrobjartsson A, Haahr MT, Gotzsche PC, Altman DG. Empirical evidence for selective reporting of outcomes in randomized trials: comparison of protocols to published articles. JAMA. 2004;291(20):2457-2465.
13. Chan AW, Krleza-Jerić K, Schmid I, Altman DG. Outcome reporting bias in randomized trials funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. CMAJ. 2004;171(7):735-740.
14. Kirkham JJ, Dwan KM, Altman DG, etal. The impact of outcome reporting bias in randomised controlled trials on a cohort of systematic reviews. BMJ. 2010;340:c365.
15. Higgins J, Altman DG. Assessing risk of bias in included studies. In: Higgins J, Green S, editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 5.0.0. Oxford: Cochrane Collaboration; 2008.
16. Vera-Badillo FE, Shapiro R, Ocana A, Amir E, Tannock IF. Bias in reporting of end points of efficacy and toxicity in randomized, clinical trials for women with breast cancer. Ann Oncol. 2013;24(5): 1238-1244.
17. You B, Gan HK, Pond G, Chen EX. Consistency in the analysis and reporting of primary end points in oncology randomized controlled trials from registration to publication: a systematic review. J Clin Oncol. 2012;30(2):210-216.
18. Bax L, Moons KG. Beyond publication bias. J Clin Epidemiol. 2011;64(5):459-462.
19. Calnan M, Smith GD, Sterne JAC. The publication process itself was the major cause of publication bias in genetic epidemiology. J Clin Epidemiol. 2006;59(12):1312-1318.
20. McGauran N, Wieseler B, Kreis J, Schuler YB, Kölsch H, Kaiser T. Reporting bias in medical research-a narrative review. Trials. 2010;11:37.
21. Nathan DG, Weatherall DJ. Academia and industry: lessons from the unfortunate events in Toronto. Lancet. 1999;353(9155):771-772.
22. Nathan DG, Weatherall DJ. Academic freedom in clinical research. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(17):1368-1371.
23. Panahloo Z. Data on neuraminidase inhibitors were made available. BMJ. 2004;328(7438):523.
24. van Heteren G. Wyeth suppresses research on pill, programme claims. BMJ. 2001;322(7286):571.
25. Turner EH, Matthews AM, Linardatos E, Tell RA, Rosenthal R. Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. N Engl J Med. 2008;358(3):252-260.
26. Godlee F. Timely publication of all trial results may mean less overtreatment. BMJ. 2013;346:f159.
27. Awasthi S, Peto R, Read S, Richards SM, Pande V, Bundy D. Population deworming every 6months with albendazole in 1million pre-school children in north India: DEVTA, a cluster-randomised trial. Lancet. 2013;381(9876):1478-1486.
28. Hawkes N. Deworming debunked. BMJ. 2013;346:e8558.
29. ter Riet G, Korevaar DA, Leenaars M, etal. Publication bias in laboratory animal research: a survey on magnitude, drivers, consequences and potential solutions. Plos One. 2012;7(9):e43404.
30. Perel P, Roberts I, Sena E, etal. Comparison of treatment effects between animal experiments and clinical trials: systematic review. BMJ. 2007;334(7586):197.
31. Macleod MR, O'Collins T, Howells DW, Donnan GA. Pooling of animal experimental data reveals influence of study design and publication bias. Stroke. 2004;35(5):1203-1208.
32. Taubes G. Epidemiology faces its limits. Science. 1995;269(5221): 164-169.
33. Ioannidis JP, Trikalinos TA. Early extreme contradictory estimates may appear in published research: the Proteus phenomenon in molecular genetics research and randomized trials. J Clin Epidemiol. 2005;58(6): 543-549.
34. Psaty BM, Kronmal RA. Reporting mortality findings in trials of rofecoxib for Alzheimer disease or cognitive impairment: a case study based on documents from rofecoxib litigation. JAMA. 2008;299(15): 1813-1817.
35. Sterling T. Publication decisions and their possible effects on inferences drawn from tests of significance-or vice versa. J Am Stat Assoc. 1959;54(285):30-34.
36. Sterling TD, Rosenbaum WL, Weinkam JJ. Publication decisions revisited-the effect of the outcome of statistical tests on the decision to publish and vice-versa. Am Stat. 1995;49(1):108-112.
37. Moscati R, Jehle D, Ellis D, Fiorello A, Landi M. Positive-outcome bias: comparison of emergency medicine and general medicine literatures. Acad Emerg Med. 1994;1(3):267-271.
38. De Oliveira GS Jr, Chang R, Kendall MC, Fitzgerald PC, McCarthy RJ. Publication bias in the anesthesiology literature. Anesth Analg. 2012;114(5):1042-1048.
39. Yuan JC, Shyamsunder N, Ricardo Barao VA, Lee DJ, Sukotjo C. Publication bias in five dental implant journals: an observation from 2005 to 2009. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 2011;26(5):1024-1032.
40. Sood A, Knudsen K, Sood R, etal. Publication bias for CAM trials in the highest impact factor medicine journals is partly due to geographical bias. J Clin Epidemiol. 2007;60(11):1123-1126.
41. Whittington CJ, Kendall T, Fonagy P, Cottrell D, Cotgrove A, Boddington E. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in childhood depression: systematic review of published versus unpublished data. Lancet. 2004;363(9418):1341-1345.
42. Easterbrook PJ, Berlin JA, Gopalan R, Matthews DR. Publication bias in clinical research. Lancet. 1991;337(8746):867-872.
43. Dickersin K, Min YI, Meinert CL. Factors influencing publication of research results. Follow up of applications submitted to two institutional review boards. JAMA. 1992;267(3):374-378.
44. Song F, Parekh-Bhurke S, Hooper L, etal. Extent of publication bias in different categories of research cohorts: a meta-analysis of empirical studies. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2009;9:79.
45. Light RJ, Pillemer DB. Summing Up: The Science of Reviewing Research. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 1984.
46. Ioannidis JPA, Trikalinos TA. The appropriateness of asymmetry tests for publication bias in meta-analyses: a large survey. CMAJ. 2007;176(8):1091-1096.
47. Sterne J, Egger M, Moher D. Addressing reporting biases. In: Higgins J, Green S, editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 5.0.0. Oxford: Cochrane Collaboration; 2008.
48. Egger M, Davey Smith G, Schneider M, Minder C. Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. BMJ. 1997;315(7109):629-634.
49. Hofmeyr GJ, Atallah AN, Duley L. Calcium supplementation during pregnancy for preventing hypertensive disorders and related problems. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2006;(3):CD001059.
50. Lefebvre C, Manheimer E, Glanville J. Searching for studies. In: Higgins J, Green S, editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Version 5.0.0. Oxford: Cochrane Collaboration; 2008.
51. Parekh-Bhurke S, Kwok CS, Pang C, etal. Uptake of methods to deal with publication bias in systematic reviews has increased over time, but there is still much scope for improvement. J Clin Epidemiol. 2011;64(4):349-357.
52. Hooper L, Kay C, Abdelhamid A, etal. Effects of chocolate, cocoa, and flavan-3-ols on cardiovascular health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012;95(3):740-751.
53. Jefferson T, Jones MA, Doshi P, etal. Neuraminidase inhibitors for preventing and treating influenza in healthy adults and children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012;1:CD008965.
54. Hart B, Lundh A, Bero L. Effect of reporting bias on meta-analyses of drug trials: reanalysis of meta-analyses. BMJ. 2012;344:d7202.
55. Ferguson CJ, Brannick MT. Publication bias in psychological science: prevalence, methods for identifying and controlling, and implications for the use of meta-analyses. Psychol Methods. 2012;17(1):120-128.
56. Rothstein HR, Bushman BJ. Publication bias in psychological science: comment on Ferguson and Brannick (2012). Psychol Methods. 2012;17(1):129-136.
57. van Driel ML, De Sutter A, De Maeseneer J, Christiaens T. Searching for unpublished trials in Cochrane reviews may not be worth the effort. J Clin Epidemiol. 2009;62(8):838-844.
58. Reveiz L, Chan AW, Krleza-Jeric K, etal. Reporting of methodologic information on trial registries for quality assessment: a study of trial records retrieved from the WHO search portal. PLoS One. 2010;5(8):e12484.
59. Ross JS, Mulvey GK, Hines EM, Nissen SE, Krumholz HM. Trial publication after registration in ClinicalTrials. Gov: a cross-sectional analysis. PLoS Med. 2009;6(9):e1000144.
60. Bourgeois FT, Murthy S, Mandl KD. Outcome reporting among drug trials registered in ClinicalTrials. gov. Ann Intern Med. 2010;153(3): 158-166.
61. van de Wetering FT, Scholten RJ, Haring T, Clarke M, Hooft L. Trial registration numbers are underreported in biomedical publications. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e49599.
62. Hannink G, Gooszen HG, Rovers MM. Comparison of registered and published primary outcomes in randomized clinical trials of surgical interventions. Ann Surg. 2013;257(5):818-823.
63. Huic M, Marusic M, Marusic A. Completeness and changes in registered data and reporting bias of randomized controlled trials in ICMJE journals after trial registration policy. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e25258.
64. Norris SL, Holmer HK, Ogden LA, et al. Selective Outcome Reporting as a Source of Bias in Reviews of Comparative Effectiveness. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012.
65. Godlee F. Clinical trial data for all drugs in current use. BMJ. 2012;345:e7304.
66. Gotzsche PC. Why we need easy access to all data from all clinical trials and how to accomplish it. Trials. 2011;12:249.