Ending publication bias: A values-based approach to surface null and negative results

2025/09/24 by Stephen Curry, Eunice Mercado-Lara, Virginia Arechavala‐Gomeza +40 · 3 voices
Decision Sciences · Medicine · #Academic Publishing and Open Access #Health and Medical Research Impacts #scientometrics and bibliometrics research

paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003368

openalex publication_date 2025/09/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Sharing knowledge is a basic tenet of the scientific community, yet publication bias arising from the reluctance or inability to publish negative or null results remains a long-standing and deep-seated problem, albeit one that varies in severity between disciplines and study types. Recognizing that previous endeavors to address the issue have been fragmentary and largely unsuccessful, this Consensus View proposes concrete and concerted measures that major stakeholders can take to create and incentivize new pathways for publishing negative results. Funders, research institutions, publishers, learned societies, and the research community all have a role in making this an achievable norm that will buttress public trust in science.

Citations

• The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results.
• Consequences of prejudice against the null hypothesis.
• “Excellence R Us”: university research and the fetishisation of excellence
• The past, present and future of Registered Reports
• Reducing bias, increasing transparency and calibrating confidence with preregistration
• Footprint of publication selection bias on meta-analyses in medicine, environmental sciences, psychology, and economics
• An Excess of Positive Results: Comparing the Standard Psychology Literature With Registered Reports
• Ten simple rules for writing a Registered Report
• A framework for values-based assessment in promotion, tenure, and other academic evaluations

Discussions

• I love the fact that our paper is in the same issue of @plosbiology.org as the consensus statement from the "Novel Approaches to Preventing Publication Bias Workshop" organized by NINDS Office of Rese [bsky, 7 points, 0 comments]
• Reminder of the importance of negative results for research quality and integrity, published in @plosbiology.org @lsajournal.org will gladly consider your manuscript with negative or confirmatory res [bsky, 6 points, 0 comments]
• doi.org/10.1371/jour... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Scientific Utopia
• Publishing negative results is good for science
• The positivity trap: is a bias against null results in research literature holding back science?
• Scientific Utopia: II. Restructuring incentives and practices to promote truth over publishability
• Balanced examination of positive publication bias impact