ArticleBMJ open2026
Impact of 'spin' on medical decision-making among healthcare professionals and other health-related decision makers: a systematic review protocol.
Article in BMJ open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introduction'Spin' refers to reporting practices that distort the interpretation of results and mislead readers' impression of the research findings so that the results are viewed in a more favourable light. This systematic review aims to assess the impact of spin on the impressions and/or interpretation of research findings among healthcare professionals and decision makers involved in health-related decision-making and to evaluate interventions/strategies designed to reduce the influence of spin. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This systematic review will be conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. MEDLINE (via Ovid), EMBASE, the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL) and the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) will be searched from their inceptions to 27 January 2026. Randomised controlled trials evaluating the impact of spin on participants' impressions and/or interpretation of research findings, as well as trials assessing the effect of interventions/strategies on the recognition and interpretation of spin, will be considered. Study selection, data extraction and risk of bias (RoB) assessment with the Cochrane RoB2 tool will be performed independently by multiple reviewers. Where sufficient data are available, meta-analyses will be conducted. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: As this study is based on a review of publicly available literature, ethical approval is not required. The findings will be disseminated through publication in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at international conferences and press releases. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY202620006.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.