The phrases "further research is needed" (FRIN), "more research is needed" and other variants are commonly used in research papers. The

cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

is so common that it has attracted research, regulation and cultural commentary.

Meaning

Some

research journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

s have banned the phrase "more research is needed" on the grounds that it is redundant; it is almost always true and fits almost any article, and so can be taken as understood. A 2004 metareview by the

Cochrane collaboration Cochrane (previously known as the Cochrane Collaboration) is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health profess ...

of their own systematic medical reviews found that 93% of the reviews studied made indiscriminate FRIN-like statements, reducing their ability to guide future research. The presence of FRIN had no correlation with the strength of the evidence against the medical intervention. Authors who thought a treatment was useless were just as likely to recommend researching it further. Indeed, authors may recommend "further research" when, given the existing evidence, further research would be extremely unlikely to be approved by an

ethics committee An ethics committee is a body responsible for ensuring that medical experimentation and human subject research are carried out in an ethical manner in accordance with national and international law. Specific regions An ethics committee in the E ...

. Studies finding that a treatment has no noticeable effects are sometimes greeted with statements that "more research is needed" by those convinced that the treatment is effective, but the effect has not yet been found. Since even the largest study can never rule out an infinitesimal effect, an effect can only ever be shown to be insignificant, not non-existent. Similarly, Trish Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, argues that FRIN is often used as a way in which a " ck of hard evidence to support the original hypothesis gets reframed as evidence that investment efforts need to be redoubled", and a way to avoid upsetting hopes and

vested interests A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in ...

. She has also described FRIN as "an indicator that serious scholarly thinking on the topic has ceased", saying that "it is almost never the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from a set of negative, ambiguous, incomplete or contradictory data."

Addressing the phrase

Greenhalgh suggests that, because vague FRIN statements are an argument that "tomorrow's research investments should be pitched into precisely the same patch of long grass as yesterday's", funding should be refused to those making them. She and others argue that more thought and research is needed into methods for determining where more research is needed.

Academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

editors were banning unqualified FRIN statements as early as 1990, requiring more specific information such as what ''types'' of research were needed, and what questions they ought to address. Researchers themselves have strongly recommended that

research article Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or theses. The part of academic written output that is not formally publ ...

s detail what research is needed. This is conventional in some fields. Other commentators suggest that articles would benefit by assessing the likely value of possible further research.

Example

Both the needfulness and needlessness of further research may be overlooked. The

blobbogram A forest plot, also known as a blobbogram, is a graphical display of estimated results from a number of scientific studies addressing the same question, along with the overall results. It was developed for use in medical research as a means of ...

leading this article is from a

systematic review A systematic review is a Literature review, scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from publ ...

; it shows

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...

s of the use of corticosteroids to hasten lung development in pregnancies where a baby is likely to be

born prematurely Preterm birth, also known as premature birth, is the birth of a baby at fewer than 37 weeks gestational age, as opposed to full-term delivery at approximately 40 weeks. Extreme preterm is less than 28 weeks, very early preterm birth is between ...

. Long ''after'' there was enough evidence to show that this treatment saved babies' lives, the evidence was not widely known, the treatment was not widely used, and further research was done into the same question. After the review made the evidence better known, the treatment was used more, preventing thousands of pre-term babies from dying of

infant respiratory distress syndrome Infantile respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS), also called respiratory distress syndrome of newborn, or increasingly surfactant deficiency disorder (SDD), and previously called hyaline membrane disease (HMD), is a syndrome in premature infants ...

. However, when the treatment was rolled out in lower- and middle-income countries, early data suggested that more pre-term babies died. It was thought that this could be because of a higher risk of infection, which is more likely to kill a baby in places with poor medical care and more malnourished mothers. The 2017 version of the review therefore said that there was "little need" for further research into the usefulness of the treatment in higher-income countries, but further research was needed on optimal dosage and on how to best treat lower-income and higher-risk mothers. Further research was done, and found the treatment did actually benefit babies in lower-income countries, too. The December 2020 version of the review stated that the "evidence hat the treatment saves babiesis robust, regardless of resource setting (high, middle or low)" and that further research should focus on "specific understudied subgroups such as multiple pregnancies and other high-risk obstetric groups, and the risks and benefits in the very early or very late preterm periods".

In culture

The idea that research papers always end with some variation of FRIN was described as an "old joke" in a 1999

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

editorial. FRIN has been advocated as a position politicians should take on under-evidenced claims. Requests for further research on questions relevant to political policy can lead to better-informed decisions, but FRIN statements have also been used in bad faith: for instance, to delay political decisions, or as a justification for ignoring existing research knowledge (as was done by nicotine companies). Policymakers may also not know of existing research; they seldom systematically search databases of research literature, preferring to use

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and ask colleagues for research papers. FRIN has been advocated as a motto for life, applicable everywhere except research papers; it has been printed on T-shirts, and

satirized Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

by the "Collectively Unconscious" blog, which reported that an article in the journal ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' had concluded that "no further research is needed, at all, anywhere, ever". The webcomic

xkcd ''xkcd'', sometimes styled ''XKCD'', is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. The comic's tagline describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Munroe states on the comic's website that the name ...

has also used the phrase as a topic, for self-satire, and as a bathetic punchline.

References

{{reflist , 30em, refs= {{Cite journal, publisher = John Wiley & Sons , collaboration= The Cochrane Collaboration , last1 = Roberts, first1 = Devender, journal = Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, last2 = Brown, first2 = Julie, last3 = Medley, first3 = Nancy, last4 = Dalziel, first4 = Stuart R, volume = 3, pages = CD004454, title = Antenatal corticosteroids for accelerating fetal lung maturation for women at risk of preterm birth, location = Chichester, UK, date = 2017-03-21, doi = 10.1002/14651858.CD004454.pub3, pmid = 28321847, pmc = 6464568{{Update inline, reason=Updated version https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33368142, date = March 2021 {{Cite journal, vauthors=McGoldrick E, Stewart F, Parker R, Dalziel SR, date=December 25, 2020, title=Antenatal corticosteroids for accelerating fetal lung maturation for women at risk of preterm birth, journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, volume=12, issue=2 , pages=CD004454, doi=10.1002/14651858.CD004454.pub4, pmid=33368142, pmc=8094626 {{cite web , url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2016/mar/16/more-research-needed-cliche-science-higher-education , title='More research is needed': empty cliché or words to live by? , first=Dean , last=Burnett , date=16 March 2016 , work=

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, accessdate=1 October 2017 {{cite web , url=http://www.evidentlycochrane.net/invisible-unicorn-grazing-office/ , title=An invisible unicorn has been grazing in my office for a month... Prove me wrong , author=Martin Burton , date=October 7, 2016 , publisher= Evidently Cochrane {{cite web , url=http://www.evidentlycochrane.net/cochrane-logo-health-warning/ , title=Should the Cochrane logo be accompanied by a health warning? , author=Iain Chalmers , date=October 4, 2016 {{cite web , url=https://abstracts.cochrane.org/2004-ottawa/further-research-needed , title=Further research is needed? , last=Vlassov , first=Vasiliy Victorovich , year=2004 , website=Cochrane Colloquium Abstracts {{cite journal , last1=Coyne , first1=James C. , last2=van Sonderen , first2=Eric , title=No further research needed: Abandoning the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) , journal=Journal of Psychosomatic Research , date=March 2012 , volume=72 , issue=3 , pages=173–174 , doi=10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.12.003 , pmid=22325694 , url=https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/6774405/Coyne_2012_J_Psychosom_Res.pdf, hdl=11370/e045970a-e3b6-49d3-a951-e221d8b71bc3 , hdl-access=free {{cite journal , url=https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/editorial-Xq1Gu7rF5d , title=Editorial: More Research is Needed , date=January 1999 , publisher=Elsevier , journal=Annals of Epidemiology , volume=9 , issue=1 , pages=17–18 , doi=10.1016/S1047-2797(98)00050-7, pmid=9915604 , last1=Maldonado , first1=G. , last2=Poole , first2=C. {{cite journal , url=http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c4662 , title=More research is needed—but what type?, first=Fiona , last=Godlee , date=25 August 2010 , journal=BMJ , volume=341, page=c4662 , doi=10.1136/bmj.c4662, s2cid=72215015 {{cite news , url=http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2012/06/25/less-research-is-needed/, title=Less research is needed, first=Trish, last=Greenhalgh, newspaper=Speaking of Medicine and Health , authorlink=Trish Greenhalgh, date=25 June 2012, accessdate=8 October 2017, publisher=

PLOS PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012 ) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launc ...

{{cite journal , authors=Karianne Thune Hammerstrøm, Arild Bjørndal. , title=If there are no randomised controlled trials, do we always need more research? ditorial, journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews , date=2011-03-14 , volume=3(?) , issue=8 , pages=ED000024 , doi=10.1002/14651858.ED000024, pmid = 21833983 {{cite web , url=https://thesislink.aut.ac.nz/?p=5179 , title=More Research is Needed , first=Anaise , last=Irvine , date=29 March 2017 , website=Thesislink , accessdate=2 October 2017 {{cite web , title=Election claim pitfalls: "further research is needed" , url=https://fullfact.org/news/election-claim-pitfalls-further-research-needed/ , website=Full Fact , language=en , date=4 May 2015 {{cite journal , url=https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/30/4/771/705915/The-economics-of-more-research-is-needed , title=The economics of 'more research is needed' , first=Carl V , last=Phillips , date=1 August 2001 , publisher=Oxford University Press , journal=International Journal of Epidemiology , volume=30 , issue=4 , pages=771–776 , doi=10.1093/ije/30.4.771, pmid=11511601 , doi-access=free {{cite web , last1=Redd , first1=Steven B. , title=Scope and Methods of Political Science, Political Science 700 , url=https://uwm.edu/political-science/wp-content/uploads/sites/186/2015/01/polsci700-redd.pdf , publisher=University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee , date=2011 (course notes) {{Cite journal, doi = 10.1016/j.amepre.2011.02.023, issn = 0749-3797, volume = 40, issue = 6, pages = 637–644, last1 = Kessler, first1 = Rodger, last2 = Glasgow, first2 = Russell E., title = A Proposal to Speed Translation of Healthcare Research Into Practice, journal = American Journal of Preventive Medicine, accessdate = 2017-10-24, date = June 2011, pmid = 21565657, url = http://sites.udel.edu/delawareproject/files/2011/10/14_Kessler__Glasgow_2011.pdf {{cite web , url=https://collectivelyunconscious.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/scientists-conclude-no-further-research-is-needed/ , title=Scientists conclude: 'No further research is needed' , author=Dr. Psyphago , date=16 January 2013 , publisher=Collectively Unconscious , accessdate=1 October 2017 {{cite web , title=2268: Further Research is Needed - explain xkcd , url=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2268:_Further_Research_is_Needed , website=www.explainxkcd.com , language=en, {{cite web , title=2271: Grandpa Jason and Grandpa Chad - explain xkcd , url=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2271:_Grandpa_Jason_and_Grandpa_Chad , website=www.explainxkcd.com {{cite web , title=2344: 26-Second Pulse - explain xkcd , url=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2344:_26-Second_Pulse , website=www.explainxkcd.com Research Medical research Philosophy of medicine Statistical hypothesis testing Phrases Metascience