Re:Something Doesn't Add Up: John Ioannidis and medical stat...
by elemeno on Sunday December 30, 2012 @06:39PM
(#4987570)
Medical Journals tend not to be interested in publishing 'negative' result papers. I can see why to an extent - they're not of particular value or interest to the vast majority of the journal's readers. They are however exceptionally valuable to anyone else running trials or doing research into similar drugs in the future, so there should be, IMO, somewhere where those papers can be made publically accesible.
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Re:Something Doesn't Add Up: John Ioannidis and medical stat...
by archgoon on Sunday December 30, 2012 @07:57PM
(#4987791)
"Journal of Plausible, but Ultimately Unworkable Hypotheses"
Problem is, you don't want a high publication count in such a hypothetical journal. That's the other side of publication bias.
Re:Something Doesn't Add Up: John Ioannidis and medical stat...
by alanctgardner2 on Sunday December 30, 2012 @11:52PM
(#4988428)
But we have computers! This would be final step of proposing a project; check that a negative, peer-reviewed version hasn't been published. Putting them in separate journals actually solves a lot of the complaints in this thread
Re:Something Doesn't Add Up: John Ioannidis and medical stat...
by archgoon on Monday December 31, 2012 @12:59AM
(#4988559)
Sorry for the confusion, that wasn't my point. The issue isn't that there would be a ton of research to wade through, the issue is that scientists whose research didn't pan now have a track record of failure. I can easily imagine a academic position hiring conversation going like "This guy has a higher failure to success ratio than average, and his successful projects aren't above average."
EDIT: But perhaps I'm being too cynical (must be the New Year). Such a journal has been constructed.
With luck, it will be wildly (un)successful :).
Re:Something Doesn't Add Up: John Ioannidis and medical stat...
by tedunangst on Monday December 31, 2012 @12:57AM
(#4988554)
You as a researcher do not want your name to appear in such a journal. Especially not lots of times.