The editor in chief of the world’s best-known medical journal claims that half of all scientific literature is false!
In the past few years more professionals have come forward to share a truth that, for many people, proves difficult to swallow. One such authority is Dr. Richard Horton, the current editor in chief of The Lancet, one of the most well respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world.
Dr. Horton published a statement in April declaring that a lot of published research is unreliable at best, if not completely false.
Quote:
“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.”
This is quite disturbing, given the fact that all of these studies (which are industry-sponsored) are used to develop drugs and vaccines, train medical staff, educate medical students and more.
Many people dismiss a lot of great work by experts and researchers at various institutions around the globe which isn’t peer-reviewed and doesn’t appear in a “credible” medical journal, but as we can see, “peer-reviewed” doesn’t really mean much anymore. “Credible” medical journals continue to lose their tenability in the eyes of experts and employees of the journals themselves, like Dr. Horton.
He also calls himself out in a sense, stating that journal editors aid and abet the worst behaviors, that the amount of bad research is alarming, and that data is sculpted to fit a preferred theory. He goes on to observe that important confirmations are often rejected and little is done to correct bad practices. Much of what goes on could even be considered borderline misconduct.
Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), another of the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, makes her view of the subject quite plain:
Quote:
“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.”