1 in 5 researchers say funders have tried to put a lid on their results

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-19 04:00

International

One in five researchers report being pressured by funders to delay, change, or not publish the findings of health behaviour studies, finds a new global study by Australian researchers. In the survey of 105 published authors on health topics like smoking, sexual health, and nutrition, some researchers said funders were reluctant about publishing “unfavourable” results, or asked the scientists to alter their method or conclusion to better align with the funder's interests. The authors suggest their findings may even under-estimate the problem, as they only looked at published papers - meaning they would have missed scientists who had their work suppressed entirely.

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conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Newcastle, Swinburne University of Technology, Hunter New England Population Health

Funder: Professor Wolfendon is funded by a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (APP1128348) and a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (Award Number101175). Infrastructure funding was provided by Hunter New England Population Health and The University of Newcastle.Professor Kypri was funded by a University of Newcastle Brawn Senior Research Fellowship for his input to this study. A/Prof Serene Yoongis funded by an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE170100382). Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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