Contradictory, unexpected or inconclusive findings

Surprisingly, …

Unexpectedly, …

Contrary to expectations, …

The results of … were unexpected.

The most striking finding is that …

The results contrast with X who found …

There is or was little evidence to suggest that …

There is or was little evidence to support …

There is or was little evidence of …

… is or was not corroborated by the evidence

There was no evidence of …

This does not imply that …

The results of … do not support the hypothesis of or that …

The results of … invalidate the hypothesis of or that …

The results suggest, contrary to current theory, that …

The results call for some explanation and comment: …

A number of elements require further explanation

This surprising result may be due to …

It is not clear why …

It is not immediately obvious how or why …

… may have been indirectly influenced by …

although the mechanism is not completely understood

The results are unclear or inconclusive or contradictory

… can be interpreted in a number of ways

The impact of … on … is not easy to determine

The data cannot adequately explain …

… complicates the assessment of the data

Interpretation of the data is complicated by …

The results are to some extent misleading

The results must be interpreted with a degree of or the utmost caution

The findings are not consistent with …

The disparity between the results may be due to …

These disparities may reflect …

The discrepancy between … may be explained by …

These apparent differences may be explained by …

While it may seem unlikely that …, it is important to remember that …

The reasons for … remain unclear.