High Risk of Bias in Early COVID-19 Studies: Meta-Analysis

Few peer-reviewed clinical papers on the pandemic contained original data, and many of those that did had poor experimental design.

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As scientists led initial investigations into the novel coronavirus last winter and spring, journal publishers saw an enormous surge in COVID-19 publications. A study published January 4 in BMC Medical Research Methodology reports that the majority of early clinical studies on the pandemic lacked original data, and those that did were rushed and did not include the appropriate measures to reduce bias.

The researchers evaluated more than 10,000 COVID-19–related medical papers published in English or Chinese before May 2020. Among peer-reviewed papers, the researchers found that 56.1 percent were opinions that did not contain any new data. Original articles that included patient data represented only 9.6 percent of the peer-reviewed studies. The researchers then evaluated the quality of research of the original articles using validated tools to assess study design and concluded that 80 percent were at risk of bias, mainly because of few participants, short follow-up ...

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Meet the Author

  • Max Kozlov

    Max is a science journalist from Boston. Though he studied cognitive neuroscience, he now prefers to write about brains rather than research them. Prior to writing for The Scientist as an editorial intern in late 2020 and early 2021, Max worked at the Museum of Science in Boston, where his favorite part of the job was dressing in a giant bee costume and teaching children about honeybees. He was also a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, where he worked as a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Read more of his work at www.maxkozlov.com.

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