# 40. Discard unfavourable data ## 40.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 40.5.5. Positive-outcome (publication) bias This is the corollary of the "File-drawer" effect. Positive-outcome (or "publication") bias is the tendency to publish research with a positive outcome more frequently than research with a negative outcome. Negative outcome refers to finding nothing of statistical significance or causal consequence, not to finding something that (necessarily) affects us negatively. Positive-outcome bias also refers to the tendency of the media to publish medical study stories with positive outcomes much more frequently than stories with negative outcomes. We constantly hear of medical advances, but we rarely hear of abandoned research lines. Media bias may be due to scientific journal bias, but the latter seems to be due mainly to researchers not submitting negative outcome studies for publication (the file-drawer effect), rather than to bias on the part of a publication or peer review editor. Who wants bad news after all?