Systematic review of publication bias in studies on publication bias

doi:10.1136/bmj.38478.497164.F7

BMJ 2005;331:433-434 (20 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.38478.497164.F7 (published 3 June 2005)

Paper

Systematic review of publication bias in studies on publication bias

Hans-Hermann Dubben, senior scientist¹, Hans-Peter Beck-Bornholdt, professor¹

¹ Institut für Allgemeinmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany

Correspondence to: H-H Dubben dubben@uke.uni-hamburg.de

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Publication bias is a well known phenomenon in clinical literature,^1
2in which positive results have a better chance of being published,are published earlier, and are published in journals with higherimpact factors. Conclusions exclusively based on published studies,therefore, can be misleading.³ Selective underreporting of researchmight be more widespread and more likely to have adverse consequencesfor patients than publication of deliberately falsified data.¹We investigated whether there is preferential publication ofpositive papers on publication bias.

Methods and results

We identified studies that assessed the impact of publicationbias in Medline (January 1993 to October 2003) using the searchterms "publication bias", "citation bias", "language bias",location bias", "reference bias", or "multiple publication bias".We also searched the references of a Cochrane review on publicationbias.⁴ We restricted the search to publications that primarilyinvestigated publication bias and whose acceptance thereforemight have depended on whether they had found publication . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

What is publication bias ?: Evelyne Decullier, et al.
bmj.com, 21 Jun 2005 [Full text]
Re: What is publication bias ?: Joseph C Watine
bmj.com, 21 Jun 2005 [Full text]
Re: Re: What is publication bias ?: Evelyne Decullier, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Jun 2005 [Full text]
Re: Re: Re: What is publication bias ?: Joseph C Watine
bmj.com, 28 Jun 2005 [Full text]
Studies on publication bias are likely susceptible to the bias they studied: Fujian Song, et al.
bmj.com, 16 Jul 2005 [Full text]
Meta-research on publication bias does not help transfer research results to patient care: Peter Kranke, MD
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Has Evidence Based Medicine Lost its Way?: Raeburn B Forbes, et al.
bmj.com, 22 Aug 2005 [Full text]
Re: Has Evidence Based Medicine Lost its Way?: Joseph C Watine
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Sparse search strategy: Jafar Kolahi, et al.
bmj.com, 29 Aug 2005 [Full text]
A proposal to reduce publication bias: M. Maria Glymour, et al.
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A less modest proposal: Jeffrey Mann
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Publication bias: Responses and a proposal from the Declaration of Helsinki: Hans-Hermann Dubben
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