Independent · non-commercial · publishes on a quarterly cycle|Current cycle 2026 Q3
Compound Evidence InstituteEvidence synthesis · established 2023Graded assessments of compounds, trials, methods and supply
Document set current to 30 July 2026
Defined term · Evidence assessment

Publication bias

The risk that the studies available to a review are not a representative sample of the studies conducted, most often because studies with unfavourable results were not published. Suspected where the…

Document identifier
CEI-GT-014
Series
Defined term
Version
1.0
Published
30 Jul 2026
Last reviewed
30 Jul 2026
Certainty
Not rated

§1Publication bias

§1.1Also known as

Small-study effects

§1.2Category

Evidence assessment — Terms describing how the Institute judges and reports the strength of evidence.

§1.3Related terms

  • Funnel plot — A scatter of effect estimate against study precision, inspected for asymmetry as an indication of small-study effects. Uninformative below approximately ten contributing…
  • Selective outcome reporting — The reporting of a subset of measured outcomes chosen after the results were known. Detected by comparing the published report with the registered protocol, which the…
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