Article: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False [John P. A. Ioannidis, MD]

October 23, 2007

Greetings everyone,

I see again and again people posting links to this or that study, and I

continue to wonder why. On a number of occasions, I've written in various

places strongly suggesting that we limit our reliance on published research

findings, particularly with respect to health-related matters.

Actually, people almost never post links to any study, but rather to an

article in the popular press that is based upon a press release about a

study. Typically, these articles are quite inaccurate and misleading, to the

extent that I honestly don't know why people read them at all.

Now, we have a full-length article explaining with clarity and in great

detail why we serve ourselves best to place little stock in most present-day

studies. (Link courtesy of David Hurwitz)

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As you read, please do keep in mind that this is a peer-reviewed article,

published in PLOS Medicine by the Public Library of Science. Also, this link

takes you to the full text of the article, not to any third-party summary.

Tables that appear as icons are available as links, just click on them to

read them.

I invite you also to read another, earlier article by the same author

entitled " Contradicted and Initially Stronger Effects in Highly Cited

Clinical Research " , published by the Journal of the American Medical

Association (JAMA) and also available in full at

Regarding the latter article, the Los Angeles Times commented, " In a

provocative 2005 paper, Ioannindis examined the six most frequently cited

epidemiological studies published from three major clinical journals between

1990 and 1993. He found that four of the six findings were later overturned

by clinical trials. " Amazing!!! The LA Times article is available at:

story?page=1 & coll=la-home-middleright>

tory?page=1 & coll=la-home-middleright

Happy reading!

Best,

Elchanan

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