Real climate science
has lots of studies.
"Climate change" mainly
has wrong, wild guesses
of the future climate,
that are fake "studies".
But all studies,
real and fake,
have something
in common:
An abstract !
There have been studies
of studies before.
The results
are consistent,
finding that abstracts
are too often
biased summaries
of the studies.
‘Spin’–exaggerating the
clinical significance
of a particular treatment,
without the statistics
to back it up, is apparent
in more than half
of clinical trial abstracts
published in top psychology
and psychiatry journals,
finds a review of relevant
research in BMJ Evidence
Based Medicine.
Evidence to date suggests
abstract information alone
is capable of changing doctors’
minds, warn the study authors.
Random controlled trials
serve as the gold standard
of evidence in medicine.
Researchers should report
their findings honestly,
but they are free to interpret
results as they wish.
An abstract should summarize
the study, but researchers may be
selective with the information
they choose to highlight, spinning
the findings, which is a form of lying.
The study authors
used the research
database PubMed, to find
randomized controlled trials
of psychiatric and behavioral
treatments, published
from 2012 to 2017,
in six top psychology and
psychiatry journals.
They reviewed only trials (116)
where primary results had not been
statistically significant.
They found evidence of spin
in the abstracts of more than half
( 56% ) of the published trials.
This included titles (2%),
results sections (21%),
and conclusion sections (49%).
In 17 trials (15%),
spin was identified
in both the results and
conclusion sections
of the abstract.
Industry funding was
not associated with
a greater likelihood
of spinning the findings:
Only 10 of the 65 clinical trials
in which spin was evident,
had some level of industry funding.
The authors tried to use
objective criteria to define spin,
but their actual assessments
would have been subjective.
The authors say:
“Researchers have an ethical
obligation to honestly and clearly
report the results of their research."
"Adding spin to the
abstract of an article
may mislead physicians
who are attempting
to draw conclusions
about a treatment for patients.
"Most physicians read
only the article abstract
the majority of the time.”
“Those who write clinical trial
manuscripts know that they have a
limited amount of time and space
in which to capture the attention
of the reader."
"Positive results are more likely
to be published, and many
manuscript authors have turned to
questionable reporting practices
in order to beautify their results.”