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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Modeling Alcohol Consumption in Rodents Using Two-Bottle Choice Home Cage Drinking and Microstructural Analysis
Published on: November 8, 2024
Reviewers' bias against the null hypothesis: the reproductive hazard of binge drinking
Gideon Koren1, Andrea Fernandes
1The Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology, Department of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. gkoren@sickkids.ca
Abstract:
We examined whether scientific reviewers exhibit bias in scoring a simulated "positive" study (i.e. showing adverse fetal effects) as compared to a simulated "negative" study on the fetal effects of binge drinking. The reviewers of the "negative" study tended to reject it more commonly, to give it lower scores, and there was significantly more variability from the median in their scores. Scientific journals should make an effort to eliminate this source of bias against negative results.
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