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Speaking to scientists I know, quite a lot of the problem is university press offices. The bullshit articles start as bullshit press releases, bearing little re
by davidgerard 11y ago
Speaking to scientists I know, quite a lot of the problem is university press offices. The bullshit articles start as bullshit press releases, bearing little resemblance to any actual facts in the original paper (or arXiv preprint). Not sure of a way around this one.
- danieltillett 11y agoThe solution is requiring the scientist to approve the press release before it goes out and having the power to force errors to be corrected.
- davidgerard 11y agoWell yes, but this ignores all power relations and incentives involved. The press offices aren't sending out BS press releases for the sake of it, they're sending them out to get the university's name positive press; and the university has all the power over the scientists.
- lvs 11y agoThis is accurate. The corporatization of academics is a significant part of the problem.
- capnrefsmmat 11y agoThere is research backing this up: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7015 http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7015 They conclude that "Exaggeration in news is strongly associated with exaggeration in press releases. Improving the accuracy of academic press releases could represent a key opportunity for reducing misleading health related news."