Publication bias against negative results from clinical trials: three of the seven deadly sins.

The article focuses on the publication bias against negative results from clinical trials in the U.S. Accordingly, the assessment of the number of meeting abstracts that turned into full papers reveals that a trial proving a benefit of a drug or device has much greater chance of full publication than does a trial which is showing no benefit. Moreover, publications of trials sanctioned by institutional review boards are often characterized by selective outcome reporting.