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Report the awful truth!

Nature Nanotechnology volume 8, pages 693–695 (2013)Cite this article

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Negative and null results are routinely produced across all scientific disciplines, but rarely get reported. The key to combat the biases arising from this mismatch lies in disseminating all details about a work, rather than just positive results.

A good metaphor for how science works is the game Battleship1. The players shoot cannons into a largely unexplored territory. Sometimes, eureka! The shot hits a ship, but most cannonballs land in the bleak and empty ocean. At first sight those shots seem wasted. But every player knows that the misses provide valuable information. Getting to know the terrain ultimately points you towards the targets.

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Figure 1: A competitive research environment might increase the positive-outcome bias.

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  1. Leonie Mueck is an Associate Editor at Nature Communications,

    Leonie Mueck

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Correspondence to Leonie Mueck.

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Mueck, L. Report the awful truth!. Nature Nanotech 8, 693–695 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.204

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