Department of Radiology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, 1053 Carling Ave, Rm c159, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4E9, Canada.
Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2021 Jan;216(1):225-232. doi: 10.2214/AJR.19.22744. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether imaging diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) studies with positive conclusions or titles have a shorter time to publication than those with nonpositive (i.e., negative or neutral) conclusions or titles.
We included primary imaging DTA studies from systematic reviews published in 2015. The conclusion and title of each study were extracted, and their positivity was classified independently in duplicate. The time from study completion to publication was extracted and calculated. A Cox regression model was used to evaluate associations of conclusion and title positivity with time to publication, with adjustment made for potentially confounding variables.
A total of 774 imaging DTA studies were included; time from study completion to publication could be calculated for 516 studies. The median time from completion to publication was 18 months (interquartile range, 13-26 months) for the 413 studies with positive conclusions, 23 months (interquartile range, 16-33 months) for the 63 studies with neutral conclusions, and 25 months (interquartile range, 15-38 months) for the 40 studies with negative conclusions. A positive conclusion was associated with a shorter time from study completion to publication compared with a non-positive conclusion (hazard ratio, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.02-1.68). Of all included studies, 39 (5%) had positive titles, 731 (94%) had neutral titles, and 4 (< 1%) had negative titles. Positive titles were not significantly associated with a shorter time to study publication (hazard ratio, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.75-1.69).
Positive conclusions (but not titles) were associated with a shorter time from study completion to publication. This finding may contribute to an overrepresentation of positive results in the imaging DTA literature.
本研究旨在评估阳性（即肯定）结论或标题的影像学诊断试验准确性（DTA）研究是否比非阳性（即否定或中性）结论或标题的研究更早发表。
我们纳入了 2015 年发表的系统评价中的主要影像学 DTA 研究。独立重复提取每个研究的结论和标题，并对其阳性程度进行分类。提取并计算研究完成到发表的时间。使用 Cox 回归模型评估结论和标题阳性度与发表时间的关联，同时调整了潜在混杂变量。
共纳入 774 项影像学 DTA 研究，其中 516 项研究可计算完成到发表的时间。413 项阳性结论研究的中位发表时间为 18 个月（四分位距 13-26 个月），63 项中性结论研究为 23 个月（四分位距 16-33 个月），40 项阴性结论研究为 25 个月（四分位距 15-38 个月）。阳性结论与从研究完成到发表的时间更短相关（风险比 1.31，95%置信区间 1.02-1.68）。在所有纳入的研究中，39 项（5%）有阳性标题，731 项（94%）有中性标题，4 项（<1%）有阴性标题。阳性标题与研究发表时间较短无显著关联（风险比 1.12，95%置信区间 0.75-1.69）。
阳性结论（而非标题）与从研究完成到发表的时间更短相关。这一发现可能导致影像学 DTA 文献中阳性结果的过度表现。
