Do you know reviewers experienced in objectively examining those kind of manuscripts? Are there journals that are not afraid of publishing controversial data? Is there a chance to exit the publication bias?
Journal of negative results in biomedicine
Journal of negative results
Journal of pharmaceutical negative results
It
I believe that BMJ (the former British Medical Journal) has a specific policy of publishing negative studies of the type sought.
Hi Johannes
It very much depends upon how you structure you manuscript and how you approach the negative findings, i.e. you can present the negative aspect in a "positive" light. So if your negative result provides an information that will potentially benefit the patient then many journals will accept it, say for example when you are able to show that a substance widely used doesn't have the activity claimed for it.
If you are presenting data from an evaluation of a new chemical entity that becomes a little harder. However, there are several journals that would consider it, again especially if you write it up in such a way that you can present a positive aspect to the finding.
I agree with Steven that BMJ accepts negative studies, although they are quite selective anyway on grounds of space. Alternatively you could submit to BMJ Online, which has a freer editorial policy with regard to the number of manuscripts it accepts (it is not a lower bar for quality though). Others I have published negative results include PeerJ and F1000Research. Also some of the BMC journals will accept negative findings so BMC Pharmacology, Trials, etc are defintiely worth a look in addition tot eh other journals specifically targeted at negative findings as suggested by Farhad and Pawan.
As to reviewers, most journals now ask you to recommend names so that may help. Of course thee can always be a problem with reviewers who don't understand the review process properly and people who just want to show how clever they are but every manuscript runs that risk. But is you select the right journals there is a good chance of a positive outcome.
Good luck with your search, Ian
As long as the study is a well done one....PLoS One would consider too
please, have a look at this http://topsciencenews.blogspot.sg/2011/02/importance-of-publishing-negative_16.html, it would be helpful for you...
You could consider Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Journal
http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/cclm
Dear All, thank you very much for all of your thoughts.
In my opinion it is of course the open access journals, that have an open-mind philosophy. I agree with Ian that it is a matter of how you structure the manuscript. However, in my experience, there is sometimes always a lack of awareness on the side of some reviewer. It seems that they adhere to one solution or interpretaion, only. It is not possible to accept that results can be contradictory.
PLoS One is always a good choice, I published there before. And I consider that they stand for what Alvaro suggested. Anyhow the only "problem" is that they claim for a study protocol, which, for all non-native researchers, might be bothersome when all documents beside the manuscript are hold in German. So, up to now, I refused to translate it.
Hi Johannes
I have just been checking the PLoS One guidelines and although they do require you to submit your protocol they do not stipulate that it must be in English - only the manuscript.
Have you tried to submit a German language protocol or asked the editors if it is necessary to translate the protocol?
Personally, although my ability to read German is limited I would not be averse to translating it myself with the aid of Bing or some other readily accessible translation system, which would at least give the essential points and importance of the procedures even if not grammatically correct.
Generally, I suspect the number of readers who would ever bother to read a protocol, even for a controversial negative study, is likely to be very small relative to the overall number of readers of the paper. So it may just be worth a try.
Best wishes, Ian
Negative Trials have become an important part of the oncology drug approval process since the endpoints (OS, PFS, etc).
Without failure - we can have no discovery
Yes there are such journals.
I am one of the Editors of Journal of Pre-Clinical and Clinical Research (Lublin, Poland). You are welcome to submitt the manuscript.
Regards, Rafal Filip MD, PhD
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Chemistry
- Pharmacology
- Medical Pharmacology
- Clinical Pharmacology