Editorial bias in scientific publications

Introduction: Many authors believe that there are biases in scientific publications. Editorial biases include publication bias; which refers to those situations where the results influence the editor's decision, and editorial bias refers to those situations where factors related with authors or their environment influence the decision. Development: This paper includes an analysis of the situation of editorial biases. One bias is where mainly articles with positive results are accepted, as opposed to those with negative results. Another is latent bias, where positive results are published before those with negative results. In order to examine editorial bias, this paper analyses the influence of where the article originated; the country or continent, academic centre of origin, belonging to cooperative groups, and the maternal language of the authors. The article analyses biases in the editorial process in the publication of funded clinical trials. Conclusions: Editorial biases exists. Authors, when submitting their manuscript, should analyse different journals and decide where their article will receive adequate treatment. (C) 2010 Sociedad Espanola de Neurologia. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.