Opening the file drawer: Unexpected insights from a chytrid infection experiment

Joseph Carpue's file drawer experiment – A murder mystery from 1801

Today unpublished or "file drawer" experiments are the impetus for trial registration and reporting of all results. In 1801, Joseph Carpue, the father of modern plastic surgery, did a file drawer experiment for Benjamin West, who was President of the Royal Academy of Arts. George III had commissioned West to create the largest stained glass window ever created whose theme, the Crucifixion, was ...

The "file drawer" phenomenon: suppressing clinical evidence.

Is there a publication bias in behavioral intranasal oxytocin research on humans? Opening the file drawer of one lab

The neurohormone oxytocin (OT) has been one the most studied peptides in behavioral sciences over the past two decades. Primarily known for its crucial role in labor and lactation, a rapidly growing literature suggests that intranasal OT (IN-OT) may also play a role in humans’ emotional and social lives. However, the lack of a convincing theoretical framework explaining INOT’s effects that woul...

P-curve: a key to the file-drawer.

Because scientists tend to report only studies (publication bias) or analyses (p-hacking) that "work," readers must ask, "Are these effects true, or do they merely reflect selective reporting?" We introduce p-curve as a way to answer this question. P-curve is the distribution of statistically significant p values for a set of studies (ps < .05). Because only true effects are expected to generat...

Confidentiality: more than a linkage file and a locked drawer.

S omewhere near the end of a consent form, script, recruitment letter, or brochure, researchers usually state that they will keep information “confidential.” But how is this promise evaluated by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and kept by the researchers? Given the researchers’ confidentiality plan, the IRB must assess the risks related to participation, including risks created by disclosu...