Science journalism by Leonid Schneider, on research integrity and academic publishing in life sciences and biomedicine
The world is in the grip of COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands dead, infection rates explode, nations in lockdown. Perfect timing for troll scientists to offer their bullshit cures. Like Thomas Webster of Northeastern University.
“Publishing in natural sciences proceeds under structures similar to the mafia. Professors exploit the creativity of their subordinates. Predatory authorship increases the number of authors. This leads to a loss of scientific quality and destroys trust in science.”
A conservative think tank organises a research integrity conference to prove climate change is not real. It is a white men-only academic event, and there are good reasons for that.
Edinburgh psychologists announce in Nature Communications genes for being rich. A Christmas Carol.
Suppose they gave a talk and no one came. It’s easy if you try.
The German Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, advertises for Ashutosh Tiwari’s predatory conferences. Occasion: Academician Herbert Gleiter won an IAAM Award.
Two old gynaecology professors in Milan decided to racially profile, then rate their misinformed young patients for sexual attractiveness. Their even published this as an evo-psych study in a respected society journal.
Royal Society of Chemistry published a research paper which unashamedly peddled TCM, under the title: “Probing the Qi of traditional Chinese herbal medicines by the biological synthesis of nano-Au”. Both Editor-in-Chief and publisher executive saw no problem there because the paper passed peer review.
Spain is where dishonest research gets rewarded, with awards, grants and media fame. No wonder the New York-based immunologist Andrea Cerutti opened a second lab in Barcelona.
The following is a rant in praise of preprints. I blog of usefulness of preprints, open science and open access, how BioRxiv works and their Plan U.
