ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2026
Negative controls and how to use them: a guidance paper.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 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.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Negative controls have gained traction as a useful tool for causal research to address confounding and bias. However, general guidance on how to select and apply negative controls and how to report and interpret their findings is lacking. This paper lays out the key steps of conducting a negative-control analysis and provides all relevant background information, important feasibility and validity considerations, and practical suggestions for the implementation and interpretation of each step. This includes a convenient overview of all methods, complete with their rationale, key considerations, and illustrative examples, and practical checklists that both researchers and reviewers can use to facilitate the complete and rigorous reporting of negative-control analyses.
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What Socratic holds
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.