I still find time for continuing research. This gets to be more difficult because of lack of facilities and equipment, but happily there are many who will help me when I really need it. My latest project was going well although it took a lot of time and effort to gather together the materials to be tested. Then came the time to analyse my results and it was soon clear that there was a fundamental, small, but very serious, error in my methodology. This prompted me to wonder, how many other researchers had encountered difficulties or had negative results and had thus never published their findings?
Then, I was musing on the IWPJ paper that had the most downloads. It had applied a new approach to an old problem but the conclusion was ‘we still don’t know’! A negative result but so useful to other researchers as it will have saved them much time and effort. Of course we know that negative drug trials do not often get published, and indeed, why not? Research with negative results is surely no less valuable.
So, I would encourage submissions to this journal that are short papers on research that didn’t work or where the equipment or methodology was unsuitable. Keep it short and concise and, knowing the dedication of the world of wood science, you can be sure of helpful suggestions from far and wide.
Don’t be shy. Apparent failure can point the way, particularly if the authors can bear to own up!