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TYLER COWEN writes in this week's issue of The New Republic on the reliability of published non-fiction. Highlighting one particular source of inaccuracy, he notes:Publication bias refers to how the editorial process favors novel and striking results. Sometimes novel results will appear to be true through luck alone, just because the numbers line up the right way, even though the observed relationship would not hold up more generally. Articles with striking findings are more likely to be published and later publicized...It's hard to know then whether Mr Cowen, an economist who blogs at Marginal Revolution and also contributes regularly to the New York Times, is being serious with his readers or winking at them when he writes:If I had to

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