Barriers to and facilitators of interventions to counter publication bias: thematic analysis of scholarly articles and stakeholder interviews.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: When the nature and direction of research results affect their chances
of publication, a distortion of the evidence base - termed publication bias - results.
Despite considerable recent efforts to implement measures to reduce the non-publication
of trials, publication bias is still a major problem in medical research. The objective
of our study was to identify barriers to and facilitators of interventions to prevent
or reduce publication bias. METHODS: We systematically reviewed the scholarly literature
and extracted data from articles. Further, we performed semi-structured interviews
with stakeholders. We performed an inductive thematic analysis to identify barriers
to and facilitators of interventions to counter publication bias. RESULTS: The systematic
review identified 39 articles. Thirty-four of 89 invited interview partners agreed
to be interviewed. We clustered interventions into four categories: prospective trial
registration, incentives for reporting in peer-reviewed journals or research reports,
public availability of individual patient-level data, and peer-review/editorial processes.
Barriers we identified included economic and personal interests, lack of financial
resources for a global comprehensive trial registry, and different legal systems.
Facilitators identified included: raising awareness of the effects of publication
bias, providing incentives to make data publically available, and implementing laws
to enforce prospective registration and reporting of clinical trial results. CONCLUSIONS:
Publication bias is a complex problem that reflects the complex system in which it
occurs. The cooperation amongst stakeholders to increase public awareness of the problem,
better tailoring of incentives to publish, and ultimately legislative regulations
have the greatest potential for reducing publication bias.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Biomedical ResearchHumans
Peer Review
Prospective Studies
Publication Bias
Publishing
Registries
Research Report
Surveys and Questionnaires
United Kingdom
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11192Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1186/s12913-014-0551-zPublication Info
Kien, Christina; Nußbaumer, Barbara; Thaler, Kylie J; Griebler, Ursula; Van Noord,
Megan G; Wagner, Petra; ... UNCOVER Project Consortium (2014). Barriers to and facilitators of interventions to counter publication bias: thematic
analysis of scholarly articles and stakeholder interviews. BMC Health Serv Res, 14. pp. 551. 10.1186/s12913-014-0551-z. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11192.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Megan Van Noord
Prof Library Staff
MSIS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill BA, University of California, Santa
BarbaraMegan received her Master’s degree in Information Science and Certificate in
Interdisciplinary Health Communication in 2008. She has worked at Duke since January
2014. Before joining Duke, she worked as a Research Associate and Information Specialist
at the Austrian Cochrane Branch and the Department for Evidence-based Medicine and
Clinical Epidemiology, Danube University, Krems,

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