Funding and Bias

Abstract

This chapter reviews the implicit and explicit biases that emerge throughout the chain from researcher to patient. Conducting research studies and disseminating their results is a costly and time-consuming endeavor at every stage in the process, regardless of the funding source. Scientists devote years to advanced education, applying for grants, conducting studies, and writing their results. The pharmaceutical industry spends exorbitant sums of money conducting clinical trials with the sole aim of gathering sufficient data to obtain FDA approval. Editors of scientific journals prefer publishing studies with novel results and disproportionally reject studies with statistically insignificant results, resulting in publication bias. The media strives to inform the public of scientific developments while appeasing their advertisers’ needs for the most clicks, page views, and “likes,” often resulting in scientific journalism overstating conclusions regarding an otherwise precise and cautious process. While the research process is overwhelmingly not maliciously manipulated, the investments of so many interested parties must introduce even implicit elements of bias into the proceedings.