Meaning & use
research bias
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountabletechnical
a systematic error in how a study is designed, carried out, or interpreted that pushes results away from the truth.
Grammar: Can be countable (a research bias) or uncountable (the presence of research bias); often used in the plural.
Patterns
- research bias in something
- a source of research bias
- to introduce research bias
- to reduce research bias
The journal rejected the paper because of serious research bias in the sampling method.
Funding from the tobacco industry can create research bias in studies of smoking risk.
Reviewers look for research bias when they check whether the authors ignored inconvenient data.
Word forms
| plural | research biases |
|---|
Common combinations
- research bias in
- There was clear research bias in the way the questions were worded.
- introduce research bias
- Choosing only volunteers introduces research bias.
- reduce research bias
- Blinding the participants helps reduce research bias.
- potential research bias
- The report warned of potential research bias.
Synonyms and how they differ
- systematic error
- Broader and more neutral; it can describe any repeated measurement mistake, not only one caused by study design.
- methodological flaw
- Focuses on the weakness in the method itself rather than on the distorted result it produces.
Word family
Commonly confused: research bias or publication bias?
research bias vs publication bias
A specific type of research bias: the tendency for positive results to be published more often than negative ones.
Practice
The team tried to ______ research bias by using a random sample.
Choose one answer.
'Reduce' is the correct verb after 'tried to'. 'Reduce in' is not a verb phrase; 'reduction' is a noun and cannot follow 'to'; 'reducing' would need a different structure such as 'tried reducing'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “research bias”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.