Reporting Bias - Definition, Types, & Examples

Reporting Bias
The research work is becoming complex because of the advancement in technology. So, you have to be careful about all of its aspects. One of the main problems which keep researchers struggling is the bias in research. The most interesting thing is that there are several types of bias, including reporting one. Many novel researchers may not know about it because of the lack of information. This is one of the most commonly observed types of bias that can affect your credibility as a researcher.

Also, there are several aspects that contribute to deciding if particular research work is good enough for publication. One of the aspects is related to the results of study. The study results are broadly judged in two ways, including positive and negative findings. Generally, researchers take negative results as a direction, which guides about something particular about the selected topic. Also, negative results do not refer to poor results.

On the other hand, research takes findings differently, which refers to a reporting bias in research. If you are stressed about bias, this article is for you. The aim of this article is to discuss reporting bias in detail.

What is Meant by Reporting Bias?

Reporting bias in research occurs when there is an improper discussion about all results. As a novel researcher, you may report false conclusions from a research study. One of the commonly observed flaws is that researchers do not have all of the data in the result section. In this way, it becomes challenging to draw an effective conclusion. For example, you have discussed the treatment of a particular disease. If you fail to discuss all of the data and its impacts, the reader cannot get the same results of information. This approach can become cause to harm the targeted audience, which is under observation.

At the time struggling for research publication, you can clearly notice the role of research with statistically significant results. In simple words, you can say that research with statistically positive results gets approval. On the other hand, if any research has statistically insignificant results, it would not get the chance of support. Irrespective of the aim of study and proper relevance of negative results with the objective, when you have to face failure, it refers to a reporting bias in research.

It is reporting bias that leads to research failure. The failure of research is commonly observed from the side of senior researcher. Also, you can find the leading role of the reviewer in it. Many researchers take studies with negative results or improper justification as a failure. The contradiction between the expected and the original work is biasness.

What Are Different Types of Reporting Bias?

There are multiple types of reporting bias, and each type refers to something particular. You may have only one type in your research work, or there can be more than one type. First of all, you have to understand each type and observe if any of the types are present in your work or not. After that, you are supposed to find ways to deal with the observed type of bias. Let's have a detailed discussion on all types of reporting bias.

Outcome Reporting Bias

This is one of the types in which unexpected results are addressed in the result section of study. When there is an unplanned outcome in the study, you may not react properly while making a decision. Decision-making is the crux of the whole research in any academic report, and one irrelevant point can affect it to a great extent. For example, you have planned that a particular medicine can improve health, but in the end, you get the opposite results. In order to deal with this type of bias, you are supposed to learn how to deal with unplanned outcomes of research.

Publication Reporting Bias

Publication bias in research can be because of many reasons. When you get to know about the main cause of publication bias, it becomes easy to come up with quality work for which you do not have to face rejection. One of the causes behind publication bias in research is the lack of motivation which is identified in the literature of study. Furthermore, there can be a bad past experience of the viewer or editor, which can work as a cause for publication bias. Also, the lack of interest is another reason which ruins the efforts added to the study. You can also see the negative results of the study as a cause of failure to publish. Lastly, a controversial topic highlights the conflict of interest, which plays a vital role in un-align results and becoming the cause of failure.

Knowledge Reporting Bias

This bias occurs when you do not address all the major points, as you may take some topics as unimportant. As a novel researcher, you need to understand that nothing is unimportant in research work, but each and every aspect have a particular impact, and it is necessary to address everything. For example, two researchers decided to work on the same problem. The medicine tested in the targeted audience is supposed to show the same results, but both researchers get different outcomes. In this case, if one of the researchers copies another's results, it means he has neglected his own experiment and tried to hide the original outcomes. So, that is how knowledge reporting bias occurs because of the lack of information.

Concluding Lines

Before reporting results and making a decision, it is necessary to know about reporting bias. Every type of this bias is connected with another one. When there is knowledge bias, it will surely lead you toward publication bias, and that is how things keep going on. So, it is suggested to be careful about it and learn properly.

0 Comments

Post a Comment

Post a Comment (0)

Previous Post Next Post