Posts Tagged ‘publication ethics’

Sometime between July 29 and August 27, Leanne Redman became Editor-in-Chief of Obesity, the official journal of the Obesity Society. We know this because the August issue (published July 29) lists Michael Jensen as editor. But the September issue (published August 27) lists Redman as editor. A One-Sided Grievance The only reason this came to […]

This one definitely sounded too good to be true from the start. A little bit of apple cider vinegar daily for young persons with obesity supposedly produced lower body weight, BMI, body fat ratio, blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol. No side effects. However, this stunning piece of research on apple cider vinegar in obesity was […]

“Swift and decisive” was the decision by the Editor-in-Chief of Nutrition and Health. This is how Luis-Enrique Becerra-Garcia described the response to errors in a publication on educating women with obesity about ultra-processed foods. The authors had claimed to find significant effects on weight, quality of life, pain, and metabolic syndrome. Becerra-Garcia and colleagues found […]

Clinical research is hard to do right – especially if the goal is to discover the true answer to a scientific question. Because scientists are human, they bring passion to their work. But they have to set aside those passions in designing and conducting research so that their research will hold up to scrutiny. Along […]

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes, said Oscar Wilde. So our latest “experience”  comes from the Obesity journal, where an unusual correction appeared yesterday. An article published in the journal precisely three months ago posted results for treating obesity that seemed too good to be true. But the paper said this study […]

Is there a political hot button any hotter right now than cancel culture? The BBC aptly suggests these words have become potent weapons in political culture wars. A former president, voted out of office, defends himself a victim of cancel culture. The list is long for people who feel like aggrieved victims. So perhaps this […]

The human impulse for bigotry is strong. Lifestyle Medicine, an open access journal, offered up a potent illustration of this yesterday. The journal published a dubious study of a weak association between a poor measure of intelligence and obesity. It’s hard to know why, but scientific merit doesn’t explain it. Nor can any excuse justify […]

Trust is fragile. But the fragile currency of trust is the foundation for advancing science in peer-reviewed publications. Ethical journals work hard with authors and reviewers to ensure that their publications are trustworthy. Journals also have a process for correcting errors that slip into publications. Retraction is an option that’s necessary when errors invalidate a […]

Correcting errors is such a nuisance. People feel bad about it. Some people simply can’t admit errors, so it can get messy. But errors are inevitable. Thus it’s really important to correct errors when they are discovered. Especially in scientific research. Nonetheless, one journal seems to have a different solution. Nutrients – an open-access nutrition […]