“Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine‘s immediate goal is to provide scientists and physicians with responsible and balanced information in order to improve experimental designs and clinical decisions”, comments Prof Bjorn Olsen, Editor-in-Chief of this journal.

The importance and usefulness of negative results is something that is arguably overlooked in the scientific arena; they are often perceived as less important due to the fact that they fail to confirm various hypotheses. This view however is gradually changing, with a growing awareness of how constructive and useful they can actually be to science.

Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine promotes the publication of negative results and data, and supports the idea that scientists should be provided with balanced information which can offer a more complete scientific record, thereby reducing the risk of publication bias or later rebuttal of research. Prof Olsen and JNRBM co-founder, Dr Christian Pfeffer, also strongly believe that “such “negative” observations and conclusions, based on rigorous experimentation and thorough documentation, ought to be published in order to be discussed, confirmed or refuted by others”.

Perhaps in reflection of this rising awareness of the importance of publishing negative results, 2011 saw an increase in submissions to JNRBM, leading to the recruitment of a number of Associate Editors to provide their scientific expertise to assist with the peer-review process. The Associate Editor model is a strategy which Biomed Central successfully introduced in 2008 in order to improve speed and quality of peer-review on its BMC series journals. The hope is that adopting a similar model for JNRBM will lead not only to a more efficient peer-review process, but also an improved capacity to publish even more of this incredibly valuable research.

To submit your manuscript documenting negative data or results, please click here. If you are interested in writing a Commentary article about your views on negative results, please email bjorn_olsen@hms.harvard.edu to discuss your proposal.