v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack AStablev2026.2

Negative result paper

A peer-reviewed publication whose primary finding is that a tested hypothesis was not supported, an intervention did not produce the predicted effect, or an expected relationship was not observed, framed as a contribution to evidence rather than as a failure.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A paper reporting that a candidate drug showed no effect on the primary outcome in a well-powered trial

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A paper reporting a small p > 0.05 finding spun as 'a trend toward significance' is not honest negative-result reporting

Editorial commentary

Negative-result publication is a counter-measure to publication bias. Some journals (Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine, PLOS One’s commitment to publishing on methodological soundness regardless of result direction) explicitly welcome them. Registered reports also enable negative-result publication by design.

References

Dirnagl 2010 ‘Why publish negative results?’ Translational Stroke Research
PLOS One editorial criteria

Also known as

Negative findings paper · Failed-replication paper

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Negative result paper"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/negative-result-paper" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "Negative result paper",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/negative-result-paper",
  "description": "A peer-reviewed publication whose primary finding is that a tested hypothesis was not supported, an intervention did not produce the predicted effect, or an expected relationship was not observed, framed as a contribution to evidence rather than as a failure.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-outputs-expanded/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/negative-result-paper",
  "sameAs": [
    "Negative findings paper",
    "Failed-replication paper"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

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