RESULT-ORIENTED CENSORSHIP IN MEDICAL JOURNALS

Abstract

The experience described in medical journals tends to constitute, in the aggregate, a biased base for learning about any given issue. The reason why any generalization, however restricted, from published studies tends to be invalid is that the studies are not published simply on the basis of how informative they are about the object of study; an added, major consideration is the result itself. Scientific manuscripts are subjected not only to review of merit but to result-oriented censorship as well. For the journals to be a forum for unbiased evidence, that is, a basis for valid inference, the sole criterion for the decision to publish would have to be, apart from the topic itself, the informativeness of the study. To this end, the editors would have to take the decision about publication on the basis of a manuscript from which the author has blanked out all the actual results, indicating only the terms in which the results would be presented.