A scientific paper is not a magical thing either. There have been absurdly bad papers published in the "best" journals (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2455231

A scientific paper is not a magical thing either. There have been absurdly bad papers published in the "best" journals (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2455231/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2455231/ - on the memory of water by Benaventiste - the graal of homeopaths) and then quietly retracted. Unfortunately the information is now in the news and it is much more attractive that the debunking. Then you have the poor quality of peer-review in many journals (the more one moves aways from hard science, the worse it gets). I had the opportunity to review a PhD thesis in a prestigious university in Europe (in biology) and the statistical part was disheartening. It was so bad that I have now concerns about everything biology :) Finally the publish or die approach to contemporary science does not help to have quality and honesty in papers. There were recent cases in South Korea. I do not have a solution, though. Probably not linking grants and career to publications would help.