A Taxonomy to Support the Statistical Study of Funding-induced Biases in Science

Abstract

The biomedical community is a leader in research on bias in science, including funding-induced bias. To facilitate this research, we have developed a taxonomy of fifteen different types of potential funding-induced bias. We describe each type of bias, as well as giving a snapshot of existing research and briefly discussing the potential for various forms of statistical analysis. We also introduce the concept of an amplifying bias cascade, wherein bias builds through successive iterations.