ArticleJournal of clinical and translational research2018
Making 'null effects' informative: statistical techniques and inferential frameworks.
Article in Journal of clinical and translational research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
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- Mindfulness enhances cognitive functioning: a meta-analysis of 111 randomized controlled trials.Health psychology review · 2024Pooled it
- The effect of monetary versus point-based rewards on effort-cost decision making in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.Schizophrenia research · 2026Trial
- Optimising a multi-strategy implementation intervention to improve the delivery of a school physical activity policy at scale: findings from a randomised noninferiority trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2022Trial
- A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Study of Magnesium Supplementation in Patients with XMEN Disease.Journal of clinical immunology · 2022Trial
- Simple and rationale-providing SMS reminders to promote accelerometer use: a within-trial randomised trial comparing persuasive messages.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Discrimination in autism as measured by minimal group and sheer difference experiments.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Article
- The Coronavirus Pandemic and Mental Health Presentations of Young Children.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Exercise testing in a paediatric chronic pain cohort - A cross-sectional observation study.British journal of pain · 2026Article
- The role of defenders' and victims' popularity in the effectiveness of defending in bullying interactions: A longitudinal social network study.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026Article
- Asking Preadolescents About Suicide Is Not Associated With Increased Suicidal Thoughts.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Saying 'no' with confidence: statistical approaches to test for the absence of an effect.Biology letters · 2025Review
- Article
- Recurrent involuntary memories and mind wandering are related but distinct.Psychological research · 2024Article
- (Mis)Perceiving Sexual Intent: A Mixed-Method Approach Investigating Sexual Overperception Across Diverse Sexual Identities.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- No evidence for relationship between paternal post-partum depressive symptoms and testosterone or cortisol in first-time fathers.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Perceptions of Allegations of Repeated Victimization: The Roles of Event Frequency, Language Specificity, and Disclosure Delay.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- Automatic approach-avoidance tendency toward physical activity, sedentary, and neutral stimuli as a function of age, explicit affective attitude, and intention to be active.Peer community journal · 2023Article
- Extra food provisioning does not affect behavioral lateralization in nestling lesser kestrels.Current zoology · 2023Article
- Zebrafish excel in number discrimination under an operant conditioning paradigm.Animal cognition · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Being able to interpret 'null effects?is important for cumulative knowledge generation in science. To draw informative conclusions from null-effects, researchers need to move beyond the incorrect interpretation of a non-significant result in a null-hypothesis significance test as evidence of the absence of an effect. We explain how to statistically evaluate null-results using equivalence tests, Bayesian estimation, and Bayes factors. A worked example demonstrates how to apply these statistical tools and interpret the results. Finally, we explain how no statistical approach can actually prove that the null-hypothesis is true, and briefly discuss the philosophical differences between statistical approaches to examine null-effects. The increasing availability of easy-to-use software and online tools to perform equivalence tests, Bayesian estimation, and calculate Bayes factors make it timely and feasible to complement or move beyond traditional null-hypothesis tests, and allow researchers to draw more informative conclusions about null-effects. RELEVANCE FOR PATIENTS: Conclusions based on clinical trial data often focus on demonstrating differences due to treatments, despite demonstrating the absence of differences is an equally important statistical question. Researchers commonly conclude the absence of an effect based on the incorrect use of traditional methods. By providing an accessible overview of different approaches to exploring null-results, we hope researchers improve their statistical inferences. This should lead to a more accurate interpretation of studies, and facilitate knowledge generation about proposed treatments.
Indexed as
Identifiers
30873486PMC6412612What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.