Matosin Natalie, Frank Elisabeth, Engel Martin, Lum Jeremy S, Newell Kelly A
Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health and Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
Dis Model Mech. 2014 Feb;7(2):171-3. doi: 10.1242/dmm.015123.
Science is often romanticised as a flawless system of knowledge building, where scientists work together to systematically find answers. In reality, this is not always the case. Dissemination of results are straightforward when the findings are positive, but what happens when you obtain results that support the null hypothesis, or do not fit with the current scientific thinking? In this Editorial, we discuss the issues surrounding publication bias and the difficulty in communicating negative results. Negative findings are a valuable component of the scientific literature because they force us to critically evaluate and validate our current thinking, and fundamentally move us towards unabridged science.
科学常常被浪漫化为一个完美无缺的知识构建体系，科学家们在其中共同努力，系统地寻找答案。但在现实中，情况并非总是如此。当研究结果为阳性时，结果的传播很简单直接，但当你获得支持零假设或与当前科学思维不符的结果时会怎样呢？在这篇社论中，我们讨论围绕发表偏倚的问题以及传播阴性结果的困难。阴性结果是科学文献的一个重要组成部分，因为它们促使我们批判性地评估和验证我们当前的思维，并从根本上推动我们走向完整的科学。
