Citations aren't facebook likes, the academic world should stop treating them as such. Studies with bad methodology, dead ends and all shorts of flaws are ofte

Citations aren't facebook likes, the academic world should stop treating them as such. Studies with bad methodology, dead ends and all shorts of flaws are often cited for a range of different reasons. Seemingly unreproduceable studies can be the result of bad measurements, but more interestingly could be because of previously unknown factors ie trace contaminants not accounted for. Also, papers proven wrong ought to remain published. The idea behind retractions seems to be misinterpreted by some as an attempt to maintain journals as a library of ground truth. That was never the case and it never will be. The real problem is the metrics we use for allocating funds, jobs and status.