BioMed Central Blog

Reporting bias widespread in medical literature

The selective reporting of trial results is a concern for those basing clinical or policy decisions on the results of published studies. In a review published last week in Trials, McGuaran and colleagues assess the prevalence of publication bias (non-publication of studies with negative or inconclusive results) and outcome reporting bias (non-reporting of specific outcomes within a published study) in the medical literature.

Review   
Reporting bias in medical research - a narrative review
Natalie McGauran, Beate Wieseler, Julia Kreis, Yvonne-Beatrice Schuler, Heike Kolsch, Thomas Kaiser
Trials 2010, 11:37 (13 April 2010)

This review of published articles on reporting bias identified cases relevant to 40 different conditions - including depression, coronary heart disease and Alzheimer's disease - and involving more than 50 different interventions. Overestimation of efficacy and safety due to reporting bias have the potential to harm patients, and these worrying statistics prompt the authors to recommend worldwide, mandatory trial registration and publicly accessible results databases to help reduce reporting bias and allow for fully informed decision making. 

Posted by Victoria Thompson at 12:30    Comments (0)

BioMed Central prize winners announced for BSP 2010

Congratulations to those who left The British Society for Parasitology Spring Meeting 2010 with a £150 prize, awarded by BioMed Central on behalf of Parasites & Vectors and Malaria Journal, for exceptional presentations.

The meeting brought together parasitologists from the UK and overseas, with over one hundred oral and poster presentations entered for the Student Prize. Whilst the standard was high throughout the meeting, prizes were awarded to the following oral and poster presentations:

• Will Proto for ‘Best oral presentation’ – awarded on behalf of Parasites & Vectors: Trypanosoma brucei metacaspases – surprises from the fourth family member
  

• Hanafy M. Ismail for ‘Best poster presentation’ – awarded on behalf of Parasites & Vectors: Developing Novel Chemical Probes to Identify Cytochrome P450s Associated with Pyrethroid Resistance in Malaria Vectors
  

• Karen J. Fairlie-Clarke for ‘Best oral presentation’ – awarded on behalf of Malaria Journal: Why do antibodies induced by malaria and helminths cross-react? 
  

BioMed Central will host an international conference, 'Parasite to Prevention: Advances in the understanding of malaria', in October 2010. For more information, please see www.parasitetoprevention.com.

Posted by Elizabeth Bal at 09:58    Comments (0)