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- Title
Positive Publication Bias in Indian Journals of Surgical Origin.
- Authors
Thakur, Sudhir Kumar; Niranjan, Ashutosh; Pandey, Sanjay
- Abstract
Background: Positive publication bias is the tendency to publish research with a positive outcome more frequently than research with a negative outcome. The work with positive results in any scientific field appears to be highly prevalent in peer reviewed journals all over the world. As far as the study of positive publication bias in medical field is concerned, few works have appeared in western countries but this study is unique in context of Indian medical journals of surgical origin Material and Method: Five Indian peer reviewed journals of surgical origin were selected for the study. The period of study was from 2005 to 2009. Only original articles were selected for the study. The abstracts of all original articles were downloaded and evaluated by two co-authors of two different Institutes and categorised into positive, negative and neutral based on the criteria in Table 1. In case of any difference of opinion, the whole article was downloaded and studied by first and both the coauthors again until the decision was taken with majority. Results: Out of 383 original articles studied 333 had positive result. Only 9 articles were negative in true sense and 41 fell into neutral category. So the percentage of published positive articles in these journals was 86.94 and of true negative articles was only 2.34%. Conclusion: The positive publication bias for articles published in Indian journals of surgical origin are quite alarming. The bias could be at the level of author, editor or peer reviewer. It is not possible from this study to find out the exact contribution of this bias at different levels unless authors, editors and reviewers take part honestly in the study. This bias ultimately affect the data of evidence based surgery. Prevention of publication bias is important both from the scientific perspective and from the perspective of those who combine results from a number of similar studies (meta-analysis). It is need of the time that steps should be taken to give adequate representation to honest work with negative results in peer reviewed journals.
- Subjects
INDIA; PUBLICATION bias; SURGERY periodicals; PROFESSIONAL peer review; PERIODICAL articles; EVIDENCE-based medicine; PUBLIC health
- Publication
Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 2014, Vol 5, Issue 1, p223
- ISSN
0976-0245
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5958/j.0976-5506.5.1.050