Opinion: ‘Null’ research findings aren’t empty of meaning. Let’s publish them

Every medical researcher dreams of doing studies or conducting clinical trials that generate results so compelling they change how diseases are treated or health policy is written. In reality, we are lucky if the results are even a little bit positive, and often end up with “null” results, meaning that the effect of a policy, drug, or clinical intervention that we tested is no different than that of some alternative.

“Null” comes from the null hypothesis, the bedrock of the scientific method. Say I want to test whether the switch to daylight saving time affects the outcomes of surgery because surgeons may be slightly more fatigued in the days following the transition due to lost sleep. I set up a null hypothesis — surgery-related deaths are no different in the days immediately before the switch to daylight