The BMJ includes a small box with each paper, summarising the prior
knowledge and what the study adds. This is laudable, but inevitably
overlaps with the abstract. We suggest an alternative use for a box. We
are torn between calling it an honesty box or a confessional box. The idea
is that all research has warts, some ugly, others less so. The ugly ones
should be picked up by peer-review. The less ugly ones are never seen,
remaining only as a twinge of guilt in the researcher’s conscience.
Possible examples are: “our power calculation – though justified by
the literature- was optimistic”….. “Reference 13 covers similar ground to
our study, and we did not know it was in progress when we planned ours”…..
“We didn’t expect finding B, and did the literature search on it after it
was discovered.”
Declaration of competing interests does not serve this purpose. We
believe the box is in the spirit of genuine scientific enquiry, and may
act as an antidote to spin. It may even contribute to restoring public
faith in science.
Confessional/ honesty box. This letter may improve our CVs
Rapid Response:
Removal of research warts
Dear Sir,
The BMJ includes a small box with each paper, summarising the prior
knowledge and what the study adds. This is laudable, but inevitably
overlaps with the abstract. We suggest an alternative use for a box. We
are torn between calling it an honesty box or a confessional box. The idea
is that all research has warts, some ugly, others less so. The ugly ones
should be picked up by peer-review. The less ugly ones are never seen,
remaining only as a twinge of guilt in the researcher’s conscience.
Possible examples are: “our power calculation – though justified by
the literature- was optimistic”….. “Reference 13 covers similar ground to
our study, and we did not know it was in progress when we planned ours”…..
“We didn’t expect finding B, and did the literature search on it after it
was discovered.”
Declaration of competing interests does not serve this purpose. We
believe the box is in the spirit of genuine scientific enquiry, and may
act as an antidote to spin. It may even contribute to restoring public
faith in science.
Confessional/ honesty box. This letter may improve our CVs
Yours sincerely,
William Hamilton, FRCP FRCGP
w.hamilton@bristol.ac.uk
David Kessler, MD, MRCPsych, MRCGP
david.kessler@bristol.ac.uk
Research Fellows, Division of Primary care, University of Bristol,
BS6 6JL
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests