A call to arms to help heal medicine’s greatest ailment - Publication bias and inadequate research transparency

Abstract

The paradigm of evidence-based medicine has made impressive advancements since its conception and implementation, but publication bias and issues with inadequate research transparency have remained persistent and pestilent problems. These closely-related issues have markedly detrimental effects on the evidence base from which researchers operate and medical providers make health care decisions, and this can result in involuntary violation of professional and ethical duties and supererogatory motives to serve the public; likewise, it puts patients at risk of receiving medical interventions or advice based on incomplete or ill-understood evidence. By informing readers about the scope of these issues, the failed attempts to correct these issues, and current efforts underway (including a measure in which the lay population can participate), this article serves as a call to arms to help eradicate these incredibly important problems.