I swear people write academic papers assuming that nobody will ever check that the references say what the authors claim they say. THEY DON'T, people. They just fucking don't. - ThreadSky

tamarhaspel.bsky.social • 90 days ago

I swear people write academic papers assuming that nobody will ever check that the references say what the authors claim they say.

THEY DON'T, people. They just fucking don't.

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drleatongray.bsky.social•90 days ago

We have a live case right now where someone is actually doing that kind of checking and my goodness me, it's really interesting what's coming out.

tamarhaspel.bsky.social•90 days ago

It's kinda crazy. I'm checking references on a paper with absolute top names in nutrition and it's bewildering. They literally cite a paper for a specific result when the other results in the cited paper contradict their claim. And then there's the stuff they just leave out!

drleatongray.bsky.social•90 days ago

You should see some of what I have to review.

oaklandishdude.bsky.social•90 days ago

To be fair there's a fair amount that don't get peer-reviewed and checked the big problem

tamarhaspel.bsky.social•90 days ago

I'm talking about peer-reviewed papers. And I don't think peer review can solve the problem because it's WAY too time-consuming to check every reference.

oaklandishdude.bsky.social•90 days ago

Oh my bad. That is completely different sorry. yeah that's kind of weird to think that they wouldn't actually get checked. 😀

jeffgreene.bsky.social•90 days ago

Totally - big problem. Reminds me of this study. Makes me think abstracts should include author-written "claims this study supports" so they can be easily (automatically?) checked when the article is cited in new papers. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-48792-001

jennbernstein.bsky.social•90 days ago

It’s wild. A citation looks like a citation. That’s it.

tamarhaspel.bsky.social•90 days ago

I swear just making this one problem go away would do away with a huge percent of crap science. Make sure A) the refs actually back up the claim and B) the refs aren't outliers in their field, but are decent representations of what we know about the subject.

jennbernstein.bsky.social•88 days ago

100% agree. And academic publishing Editors-in-Chief are typically overworked (department chairs etc) and most associate editors are unpaid. Add “pay to play” journals to the mix. Little bandwidth and incentive to do this important work.

evafain.bsky.social•90 days ago

I do. I am vicious some of the time.

saltikoff.bsky.social•90 days ago

Just you wish.
Best regards from reviewers Nr. 2

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