5 ms·
Great question, and I'm unfortunately going to have to give the answer of 'it depends'. Each study is different and therefore run differently. Many, many, fact
by Balgair 3y ago
Great question, and I'm unfortunately going to have to give the answer of 'it depends'.
Each study is different and therefore run differently. Many, many, factors determine how a study is run, analyzed, and published.
Most studies are very small, using only one site and a few volunteers. Most of these never see the light of day, as the results aren't publishable or are uninteresting. Think power law distributions with studies, not normal distributions. These studies are often so small that the collector and interpreter are the same person, typically they are also the grant writer and admin. If lucky, they may get some nurses or undergrads to help out. Again, I'd say this is ~80% of studies.
The really large studies that places like Pfizer run will separate out nearly all parts of a study. So consenters, nurses, intake, data admin, funding admins, stats guys, etc are all different people. These are very expensive studies to run so it's really only for FDA approval, not scientific inquiry and case studies.
Generally, most studies are very small and not publishable. They don't need to separate out everyone. Everyone kinda trusts that everyone else is doing their best. If something snazzy is found, then follow up studies will build on it's findings. Most of the time though, nothing is really found.