 absolutely so you're talking about what's called reporting bias and indeed it's just a matter of most people know as a researcher that it's so much harder to get published so you conduct a study it went pear-shaped for one reason or another and you think oh god okay so i can either spend two years of my life trying to get this thing published which may never happen or i can just turf it start over again give it another go try a different variable and then you're gonna waste a lot less time because the thing is