Scientific Method be damned, medical journals have an economic incentive for publishing papers with postive outcomes. When a drug study shows positive outcomes, pharmaceutical companies buy reprints of it in bulk to distribute it to prescribers.
Those purchases can add up to over $2 million. For journals like The Lancet ($40 annual revenue) and NEJM ($100 million/yr.), that’s huge. 41 percent of The Lancet’s 2021 income came from reprints. When it comes to drug studies, Big Phama’s thumb is firmly on the scale.
More:
Scientific journals are incentivized to publish positive drug studies,” Annalisa Merelli, Quartz
Related:
“Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” John P. A. Ioannidis, PLOS Medicine
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