Negative research findings database

Roger Knights

I wish the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) or some other prestigious group with resources would establish an online bulletin board system (BBS) or Internet SIG where short summaries of negative findings in science and industry could be posted. Names of the researchers could be omitted. Any readers who were interested in obtaining more detail on a listed item could place a request into an online mailbox, perhaps along with a credit card number; they'd then be e-mailed a fuller report on the procedures used, hypotheses tested, etc.

Such research is not usually printed unless it contradicts a previous positive finding, although doing so would spare other researchers from heading down the same blind alley in the future. This non-publication illustrates the ego-factor in science - the degree to which it is not collective, altruistic search for truth. The scientists involved don't want to look bad, and the editors want to accentuate the positive. This is scandalous, because it would be scientifically beneficial to have the fruitless paths clearly marked off for the next wanderers in the maze.

Roger Knights, 5446 45th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98136-1108, USA (tel 001 206 932 5446; fax 206 932 9324).

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