In the third article (25.9.14) in The Conversation’s series on research, Natalie Matosin and Martin Engel point out that ‘negative research findings, those that do not agree with what the researchers hypothesised – are often overlooked, discouraged or simply not put forward for publication. Yet negative findings can save scientists valuable time and resources by not repeating already performed experiments, so it is important that all results, regardless of the outcome, are published.’