Clinical Trials in a Vacuum: Study of Studies Shows Few Citations

[Guest guest]

The new study is relevant to the issue of vaccinations & autism because,

generally, vaccination/autism studies intended to find no proof of harm

fail to cite studies providing evidence of harm. Of course, bashing

Wakefield et al 1998 was a medical-industry group effort, even as most

studies documenting thimerosal's harm are ignored.

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A systematic examination of the citation of prior research in reports of

randomized, controlled trials. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21200038>

KA, Goodman SN.

Ann Intern Med. 2011 Jan 4;154(1):50-5.

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Trial in a Vacuum: Study of Studies Shows Few Citations/*

By GINA KOLATA

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/health/research/18cite.html

Science, so the story goes, is a meticulously built edifice. Discoveries

balance on ones that preceded them. Research is stimulated by studies

that went on before.

But what, then, can explain the findings by two investigators at s

Hopkins University School of Medicine? The researchers, A.

and Dr. N. Goodman, looked at how often published papers

on clinical trials in medicine cite previous clinical trials addressing

the same question.

They report in the Jan. 4 issue of ls of Internal Medicine what Dr.

Goodman describes as " a rather shocking result. " He summarizes: " No

matter how many randomized clinical trials have been done on a

particular topic, about half the clinical trials cite none or only one

of them. " ....

..