Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine

Future Research Projects

Do secondary journals faithfully report the conclusions of primary research?

Supervisors

Professor Chris Del Mar
Dean of Health Sciences and Medicine

BACKGROUND

Secondary journals exist to ‘push’ research to clinicians, by limiting papers evaluated by a team of experts to be both relevant and valid. They publish nothing original, but rather, secondarily, papers from primary research journals, summarised into one page with data and a commentary from an independent expert.  The service enables busy clinicians to read about relevant and valid research.

But does the service faithfully transmit the data and emphasis? There have been complaints form primary research authors that their findings were altered in important respects.

This literature-based research looks to evaluate to what extent this occurs, in a sample of journals and their secondary reproductions.

AIMS OF THE PROJECT

To measure any difference between primary research data conclusions, and their reproduction in secondary journals.

METHODS

We will start by sampling some secondary journal papers, in Evid Based Med J, and obtain copies of theoriginal paper. Then we will evaluate the conclusions of the original with that of the secondary, to measure any differences.