Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science

Biomedical research publications give a distorted view of the reality of scientific data generated in laboratories and clinics. The “winner’s curse,” a more general statement of publication bias, suggests that the small proportion of results chosen for publication are unrepresentative of scientists’ repeated samplings of the real world. In meeting society’s expectations and our own goals as scientists, there is a moral imperative to reconsider how scientific data are judged and disseminated.