Is our public research money well spent?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-06-01 03:00

New Zealand

What does this mean?

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Research that isn't reported in a timely way - or isn't reported at all - wastes time and money, and may even misrepresent the evidence base of a certain field. NZ researchers looked through 374 grants awarded by the Health Research Council in New Zealand over the course of almost ten years to see just how many projects had their findings shared publicly at the end  The vast majority of these studies, 87%, had their findings shared in journal publications, online reports, or conference abstracts  - only 13% didn't share their results in some way. The authors say that we need new initiatives to decrease publication bias (where studies producing a negative or null result are less likely to be published) so that future healthcare and policy is based on all the evidence, not just the evidence that is available.