Forrester Will No Longer Let Companies Publicize Commissioned Studies

from the it's-about-time... dept

For years, every time we mention a study that was commissioned by a company that stood to benefit from it, we've tried to include a note pointing out the bias. It's pretty standard knowledge that certain market research firms will produce a study for a company showing them whatever it is they want to prove. Within reason (and sometimes, slightly beyond reason) it's not hard to create a study proving just about anything. You see these "studies" come out all the time, and about all they're good for is a press release and some press coverage from reporters who don't think twice about what they're writing about. So, it's very good to hear that well-known research firm Forrester has now announced that they will no longer let customers of their commissioned research reports publicize those findings. They'll still do commissioned research - though, the demand is likely to go down. Most of the time, the reason to do those commissioned reports is simply to publicize the findings. Forrester says commissioned work is such a small part of their business that they're not too worried about it, if this makes customers stop using them for that purpose. However, it will be interesting to see if some clients of their regular services end up jumping ship when they realize they also won't be able to use any commissioned research for publicity either. Still, it's good to see Forrester take such a stand.

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