Only the "Best" Scientific Work

This article, which highlights the work of Dr. Ioannidis (an epidemiologist at Ioannina School of Medicine, Greece) and his colleagues, suggests that research published in the top journals may be wrong. After reviewing 49 articles that had been cited by more than 1,000 other scientists, Dr. Ioannidis discovered that the findings of almost one-third had been refuted. Further, he notes that there is a bias toward positive rather than negative findings. One example can be seen with recent research on antidepressants - studies that showed positive results from these drugs were published, whereas those that showed negative results were not.