Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Bias

Bias

Bias refers to any tendency that prevents a question from being considered unprejudiced. In research, bias occurs when one outcome or answer is selected or encouraged over others in sampling or testing. Bias can occur during any research phase, including study design, data collection, analysis, and publication.
In statistics, a sampling bias is created when a sample is collected from a population, and some members of the population are not as likely to be chosen as others (remember, each member...

Bias in Epidemiological Studies

Bias in Epidemiological Studies

Biases can arise at various stages of research, from study design and data collection to analysis and interpretation. Recognizing and addressing these biases is essential to ensure the validity and reliability of epidemiological findings.Broadly speaking, biases in epidemiology fall into three main categories: selection bias, information bias, and confounding. A more detailed description of possible biases is:

Blind Procedures

Blind Procedures

Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...

Psychosurgery

Psychosurgery

Psychosurgery, the surgical alteration or permanent removal of brain tissue to alleviate severe psychological conditions, stands as one of the most radical and controversial treatments in the history of mental health care. Its development and application have evolved significantly, marked by dramatic shifts in scientific understanding and ethical perspectives.
Historical Development of Psychosurgery
In the 1930s, Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz introduced a surgical procedure designed...

Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches

Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches

Biopharmaceutical studies constitute a vital field aiming to enhance drug delivery methods and refine therapeutic approaches, drawing upon diverse interdisciplinary knowledge. In research methodologies, the choice between controlled and non-controlled studies significantly influences the study's reliability and accuracy.
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast, controlled...

Blinding

Blinding

Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Physicians caring for physicians: the perspective of the primary care physician.

Southern medical journal·2014

Same author

Ethical considerations in the first American face transplant.

Plastic and reconstructive surgery·2010

Same author

A pilot study to examine research subjects' perception of participating in research in the emergency department.

Journal of medical ethics·2010

Same author

The world's experience with facial transplantation: what have we learned thus far?

Annals of plastic surgery·2009

Same author

Near-total human face transplantation for a severely disfigured patient in the USA.

Lancet (London, England)·2009

Same author

Case study. All for one, or one for all? Commentary.

The Hastings Center report·2007

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Principles of Rodent Surgery for the New Surgeon

Principles of Rodent Surgery for the New Surgeon

Published on: January 6, 2011

Bias in surgical research.

Carmen Paradis¹

¹Bioethics Department, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44195, USA. paradic@ccf.org

Annals of Surgery

|July 25, 2008

Summary

Surgeons must recognize and mitigate bias in surgical research to ensure valid and applicable results. Awareness of various biases in design, execution, and reporting is crucial for improving clinical trial quality and patient care.

Area of Science:

Surgical Research Methodology
Clinical Trial Design
Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

Bias significantly impacts the validity and applicability of surgical research findings.
Understanding different types of bias is essential for interpreting and utilizing surgical studies.

Purpose of the Study:

To discuss various forms of bias in surgical research.
To explain how bias affects research validity.
To provide guidance on recognizing and avoiding bias in surgical trials.

Main Methods:

Exploration of factors influencing bias in surgical research design, execution, and reporting.
Examination of bias impact on internal and external validity in observational and randomized controlled trials.
Development of recommendations for bias amelioration in surgical studies.

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Principles of Rodent Surgery for the New Surgeon

Principles of Rodent Surgery for the New Surgeon

Published on: January 6, 2011

Main Results:

Identifying bias aids surgeons in assessing surgical research validity.
Minimizing bias enhances trial validity for reliable clinical translation.
Key biases include susceptibility, surrogate endpoints, comparator issues, detection, ascertainment, performance, transfer, and citation bias.

Conclusions:

Familiarity with clinical trial biases improves assessment of research believability and applicability.
Standard remedies like randomization and blinding present unique challenges in surgical research.
Innovation in surgical research design and evaluation is needed to enhance trial validity and assessment.