Negative Data Prize is a positive?
Global Preclinical Data Forum says sharing negative science results is key to neuroscience progress
NEW YORK—The Global Preclinical Data Forum (GPDF), a partnership of non-profit research biotech Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), announced in April the opening of submissions for the 2020 Best Negative Data Prize competition. This prize, which was first launched in 2017, will award €10,000 to the researcher/research group whose publication in neuroscience research best exemplifies data where the results do not confirm the expected outcomes or original hypotheses.
The GPDF consists of members from the academic, non-profit, government, publishing and industry sectors and aims to encourage global collaboration to address the challenge of ensuring that preclinical research is reproducible, robust and translatable to support disease research utility for clinical research and development. One of the group’s major focuses is to provide quality resources and promote the publication of “negative” data—results of studies where researchers are not able to confirm or replicate previous findings—which are often not submitted for publication.
“Science is a progressive build and, at its essence, self-correcting, but we know it can be much more informative if both positive and negative data are published for all scientists to see,” said Dr. Magali Haas, CEO of CVB and co-chair of the U.S. branch of the GPDF. “Unfortunately, the scientific community is not motivated to publish ‘negative’ results, as they are not seen as advantageous for the scientist, organization and journal. This, unfortunately, is a disservice to the scientific community, as not sharing negative unpublished data is a waste of human capital and valuable resources and can lead to the duplication of efforts by others in the field. In fact, the estimated costs of this ‘lost’ science in the U.S. alone is $28 billion dollars annually.”
The closing date for submissions was April 21, just a couple weeks after the announcement that they had opened, but if you are interested in the results (to be announced Sept. 12) or want to submit something for next year, visit http://www.preclinicaldataforum.org for more information.
