Avoiding waste of research resource: cohort study of publication rate for funded studies from a major UK research funder

Abstract

Objectives Failure to publish findings from research is a significant area of research waste. It has previously been suggested that potentially over 50% of studies funded are never published. This study aimed to investigate what percen- tage of NIHR HTA programme funded projects have published their final reports in the programme's journal Health Technology Assessment, (the monograph series); and to explore reasons for non-publication. Methods 628 projects were included: 582 (92.7%) had published a monograph; 19 (3.0%) were expected to publish a mono- graph; 13 (2.1%) were discontinued studies and would not publish; 12 (1.9%) submitted a report which did not lead to publication as a monograph; and two (0.3%) did not submit ar eport. Reasons why projects failed to complete included: failure to recruit; issues concerning the organisation hosting the research; drug licensing issues; staffing issues; and access to data. Overall 95.7% of HTA studies either have published or will publish a monograph: 94% for those commissioned in 2002 or before and 98% for those commissioned after 2002. Conclusions Monographs are published for a very high percentage of NIHR HTA projects. Advantages of this model of pub- lishing include: avoidance of publication bias and research waste; while enhancing accessibility and trans- parency of findings.