Definition: The tendency to report only significant results in the abstract, while reporting non-significant results within the main body of the manuscript (not reporting non-significant results altogether would constitute selective reporting). The consequence of abstract bias is that studies reporting non-significant results may not be captured with standard meta-analytic search procedures (which rely on information in the title, abstract and keywords) and thus biasing the results of meta-analyses.
Related terms: Cherry-picking, Publication bias (File Drawer Problem), Selective reporting
Drafted and Reviewed by: Ali H. Al-Hoorie, Mahmoud Elsherif, Bethan Iley, Sam Parsons, Gerald Vineyard, Eliza Woodward, Flávio Azevedo
Parsons, S., Azevedo, F., Elsherif, M. M., Guay, S., Shahim, O. N., Govaart, G. H., … & Aczel, B. (2022). A Community-Sourced Glossary of Open Scholarship Terms. Nature human behaviour, 6(3), 312-318. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01269-4
