Posted on 10/13/2014 4:48:22 AM PDT by george76
How reliable is academic research? Not very it seems, after noting that the Journal of Vibration and Control, a reputable academic publication, had to retract 60 different papers over the summer.
The editors concluded that Chen-Yuan Chen, a researcher in Taiwan, had created a “peer-review and citation ring.”
OK, it’s not exactly a “Sopranos” plot. But it’s pretty shady for the world of higher education. Chen went to great lengths to make up fake e-mail addresses and even assume the names of other scientists to write approvingly of his own research.
In a sense, though, he was just exploiting the deep flaws of the peer review system. The academy has become a kind of club where friends give friends flattering assessments of research, which essentially guarantees promotions and tenure.
...
The only way to combat the production of academic research that simply confirms what liberal academics already believe is by having someone there to question these assumptions.
As Smith tells me, “Knowledge is advanced through the clash of rival interpretations of the evidence.”
The professors must have missed that memo.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Stalinists lie. ALWAYS
>> Based on my own personal experience in NSF-funded, “peer reviewed” research publication, ALL “peer review” is based on “peer-review and citation rings”. Furthermore, I thought the reviews were often shoddy, in that the reviewers often didn’t have the necessary knowledge to do proper review.
Quotes on book jackets from "authors who've read and liked the book" are often swapped. The blurbs may hold no credibility at all.
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address. . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist . . .While he was waxing philosophical about such dangers, it’s a shame Ike didn’t warn us about the unwarranted influence of “associated” journalism. Adam Smith warned us thatThe prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. - Wealth of Nations
It should be obvious - tho it took me many decades as an adult to realize it - that journalists talk to each other incessantly via the mechanism of the Associated Press and other wire services. And that therefore journalists presumptively are engaged in “a conspiracy against the public.“ That conspiracy bribes our politicians with its PR treatment of them.
I am reminded of the old Tom Leherer parody about science and the great Lubichetsky, “Plagiarize, Plagiarize but always call it research!”
imnsho that is unfortunately the single most important development of the last 150 years or so: the submergence of Rationalism by romantic ideologies and Lysenkoism.
Of course it is. That was the point.
Given the topic, it seems as if pure money-grubbing corruption could be the key feature of this particular case, rather than "liberal bias."
Exactly
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.