Publication Bias
A bias in academic research that favors the publishing of novel or interesting results (at the expense of 'null' results) — which skews the publishing literature.
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Origin
The phenomenon was given its most memorable framing in 1979, when psychologist Robert Rosenthal coined the phrase "file drawer problem" — the observation that studies with null results tend to remain unpublished while studies with positive results make it into journals. Rosenthal estimated that published results represented a systematically skewed sample of all research conducted. The problem gained critical public attention with the replication crisis of the 2010s, which exposed how publication bias had inflated effect sizes across psychology and medicine.
Updated February 22, 2026