such problems are not limited to this field I agree - it seems to be particularly common in fields that touch, no matter how obliquely, onto issues of public p

such problems are not limited to this field I agree - it seems to be particularly common in fields that touch, no matter how obliquely, onto issues of public policy. On more than one occasion I have tried to find a definitive reference for a claim and found nothing. Now that evidence-based medicine has done so much for us, one can only wish for evidence-based sociology. Admittedly, it is a bit harder...