How to spin failure like a pro

Does it ever seem like every news story about an abject clinical failure includes a strangely sanguine quote from a scientist with an eye for silver linings?

A group of researchers in London observed that their big-name peers seemed to reach for every explanation but for the simplest one — the drug didn't work — and so they ran the numbers and came up with a handy compendium of go-to scapegoats when you don't want to admit defeat.

Writing in the BMJ, six researchers from Imperial College London examined four years of cardiovascular studies covered by the medical press and found that 85 percent of the negative ones elicited "excuses," defined as pointing the finger at anything other than the drug, from key opinion leaders.

The most common excuse was “sample size too small,” followed by the immortal “more studies are needed,” then “study population too inclusive,” and finally “follow-up too short.”