That oft-spouted dictum ‘follow the science’ would not have surprised American philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996). In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Kuhn explained how ‘normal science’ becomes a rigid orthodoxy, maintained by rewards in pay, promotion and prestige. Great force is needed to disrupt the established paradigm and its assumptions, as everted by the discoveries of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Consequently, science progresses not as linear trajectory but by a series of revolutions.
The peer review process in scientific journals is meant for quality control, but it has been criticised by editors of prestigious journals such as Richard Smith of the British Medical Journal, Marcia Angell of the New England Journal of Medicine and Richard Horton of the Lancet, the latter remarking:
We know that the system of peer review is biased, unjust, unaccountable, incomplete, easily fixed, often insulting, usually ignorant, occasionally foolish, and frequently wrong.
A bigger problem than inconsistency is reinforcement of prevailing ideological consensus, as shown by the difficulty of climate change sceptics in getting their work in print. By contrast, Peter Boghossian, James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose got a series of absurd spoof papers published in the journals of various ‘grievance studies’ such as Gender, Place & Culture. One paper explained the penis as a social construct, in the second the authors claimed to have examined thousands of canine genitals to reveal rape culture in dog parks, the third argued that men could quell their transphobia by anally penetrating themselves with sex toys, and the fourth was a translation of Mein Kampf with feminist buzz words. Research is judged on acceptability rather than scientific validity, it seems.
This departure from due diligence is a mystery to many, but it is explained well by Costică Brădățan in UnHerd of December 21st:
How did papers of no scholarly merit pass, sometimes with flying colours, the crucial test whereby a scholar’s subjective opinion becomes reliable knowledge: the peer-review process? Because the authors understood how important conformism to the dominant ideological orthodoxy is in the academic humanities. The hoaxers didn’t need to place any real knowledge in their submissions, only the recognisable markers of belonging to the same camp — dazzling buzzwords such as ‘rape culture’, ‘queer performativity’, ‘systemic oppression’ — which mesmerised both journal editors and the external reviewers.
In 1975, Professor David Horrobin founded the journal Medical Hypotheses as an outlet for ‘revolutionary science’. Instead of peer review, Horrobin made all publishing decisions as Chief Editor. The journal was owned by Pergamon, a company established in 1951 by Robert Maxwell. Pergamon expanded to hundreds of journals and Maxwell, the media tycoon, made a fortune in selling it to Elsevier in 1991. Pergamon did not interfere with Medical Hypotheses, but the new owner did.
After Horrobin died he was replaced by Bruce Charlton. In 2009 Charlton accepted a paper by Peter Duesberg, a virologist at Berkeley who contested the link between HIV and AIDS. Duesberg supported the South African government’s decision to withhold antiretroviral drugs from AIDS sufferers. This was sacrilege to the AIDS research community, which was thriving on huge research grants. Scientists associated with the U.S. National Institutes of Health threatened to banish Elsevier journals from the National Library of Medicine unless the article was retracted. Elsevier relented to pressure and Charlton was dismissed as Editor. As the Secret Professor wrote in The Dark Side of Academia (2022): “Peer review had to be instituted in order to ensure that existing truths were not threatened again.”
Censorial activity escalated with COVID-19. For example, both of us were denied the right of reply in the prestigious Journal of Advanced Nursing published by Wiley after being smeared in its editorial pages over our expressed views on lockdown. One journal editor –Jose L. Domingo of Food and Chemical Toxicology – who published a controversial COVID-19 article and also requested manuscripts “on the potential toxic effects of COVID-19 vaccines” resigned after concern about “deep discrepancies” with the journal’s direction under publisher Elsevier as the reason for his early exit. One of us (RW) has raised the possibility that the Committee on Publication Ethics may be complicit in the process of censoring academics and editors and has expressed concern over what the major academic publishers classify as ‘misinformation’ regarding COVID-19.
Academic journals are commercial enterprises and are under no obligation to publish anything sent to them. They favour manuscripts that are likely to be cited highly to maximise impact factor – a key measure of journal performance in a competitive marketplace. A manuscript may be rejected in initial desk screening by the Editor-in-Chief, subsequent screening by an editor to whom it was assigned or following peer review. In some cases, an Editor-in-Chief may overrule the Editor and reject a manuscript. Peer reviewers are chosen for their specialist expertise, but they merely make recommendations to editors. They may warn about a manuscript with contrary findings or controversial claims, and some editors will shy away from potential trouble.
The extent of retraction of counter-narrative COVID-19 articles, as tracked by website Retraction Watch is very concerning, If a manuscript published as an article is subsequently retracted the convention is that it remains on the website and available at the original digital object identifier, but with a prominent header indicating that it has been retracted or a ‘Retracted’ watermark across the pages. However, this process has not been followed with the vast majority of retracted COVID-19 articles. Reputable publishers such as Elsevier, Wiley and PLOS One have been mounting retraction notices and completely removing the original articles.
Scientific preprint outlets, which enable researchers to publicise their findings before peer review, boast of their openness to any study results. However, just as the sanctuary of freedom of speech at Speakers Corner fell to the COVID-19 regime, so did the preprint websites. Several papers on COVID-19 by Professors Norman Fenton and Martin Neil, despite adhering to scientific standards of analysis and reporting, were routinely rejected. For example, Fenton and Neil recently submitted an analysis of ONS vaccine surveillance data to medRxiv, which responded:
We regret to inform you that your manuscript is inappropriate for posting. medRxiv is intended for research papers, and our screening process determined that this manuscript fell short of that description.
A similar response by arXiv dismissed the article as out of scope, yet as Fenton and Neil observed, “this is curious given the enormous number of papers they have on Covid data analytics”.
What is to be done? Gatekeepers are manipulating the dissemination of scientific research, but this is not an easy problem to solve. One of us (RW) has been an editor on three journals during the COVID-19 period. The only policy of which he is aware is a widespread agreement across the academic publishing industry to fast-track COVID-19 manuscripts as a public health priority. He is not aware of any policies to publish only articles that align with the official narrative (lockdowns good, masks effective and vaccines safe). However, pressure is clearly being exerted at some point and it has extended beyond the publishing industry to the preprint environment.
When research is blocked from preprint exposure, effectively it doesn’t exist. Surely if preprint sites are used properly then we have nothing to fear from publication of manuscripts that challenge medical or scientific orthodoxy. If an argument is flawed or analysis faulty, let these flaws and faults be revealed. As Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, early in the last century, “sunlight is the best disinfectant”.
Roger Watson was previously the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Advanced Nursing, published by Wiley, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Nurse Education in Practice, published by Elsevier. He is also an editorial board member of the WIkiJournal of Medicine. Niall McCrae was an editorial board member of Journal of Advanced Nursing.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
quite right too. vaccines are low risk and work great.
No, quite wrong! Nobody, especially concerning those of an age that the virus poses little risk to, should be coerced into having an experimental gene therapy that may pose more of a risk than the virus itself. I don’t know what planet you are in but I hope that it’s not the same one that I am on!
to slw infections, you can use lockdown or vaccine, yet you’ll always get the stubborn fellows who reject both and then wind up with both, serves the buggers right in a funny sort of way!
Why slow infections? Better to let it spread and allow the young and invulnerable to get immunity when young just like you do with chicken pox.
It would be madness to replace that natural immunity with blod clot causing gene changing experimental therapy that doesnt even work.
“to slw infections, you can use lockdown or vaccine”
No substantive evidence of that, Rip van Winkle.
You’d best go back to sleep.
*Distaval can be given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without adverse effect on mother or child … Outstandingly safe Distaval has been prescribed for nearly three years in this country”
That’s from a contemporary advertisement for thalidomide, which was aggressively marketed at the time.
Outstandingly safe, mRNA vaccines have been prescribed for nearly three months in this country….
… and thalidomide was much more tested than the snake oil.
Do you not want students to learn that being healthy is your best immunity? I would have thought universities, as the ‘great seats of learning’, should be encouraging that, not a vaccine which removes all personal responsibility for one’s health. This also shows that universities are no longer places where a plurality of views are tolerated. That is the most disturbing element about this. University = how to fit into compliant culture (including cancel culture).
Biggest numpty in the world award goes to …
Glad to see them author use the word “coerce.”
Presumably they’ll be happy to payout compo for any serious side effects, and therefore happy to sign a liability statement to that effect prior to the students getting vaccinated.
Not just in the USA, but Canada too. My 17 year old niece has been awarded a scholarship to the University of Guelph for September 2021 and has now been informed that in order to attend she must have a covid vaccine! My brother and sister in law are incredibly upset and my niece is now being coerced in to doing something she doesn’t want to do nor needs.
She should tell them where to go
But the vaccines don’t prevent infection or transmiss…
…oh never mind, there’s no point in using logic or reason now that we are in the Age of the Endarkenment.
That’s a bare faced lie: one dose halves tranmission, two doses more that halves transmission.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56904993
A very questionable study!
Go right ahead and have your vaccine, Fon, it’s your choice! In fact, have mine too. Whether the vaccine works or not, the point is that no one should be coerced into getting one
🤣🤣🤣
You’re linking to the BBC?
I can’t decide from your posts whether you just like winding people up or genuinely believe what you write.
I would really like you to change my mind on these vaccines so give it your best shot (pun intended). Here’s a clue, citing the BBC isnt going to do it.
https://khub.net/documents/135939561/390853656/Impact+of+vaccination+on+household+transmission+of+SARS-COV-2+in+England.pdf/35bf4bb1-6ade-d3eb-a39e-9c9b25a8122a?t=1619601878136
Feel free to go to the source material. It’s a significant analysis. You want Figure 2.
Mmmm … Source : Public Health England.
‘Infection’ definition? : “confirmed cases using PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 through national reporting systems”
Not an RCT.
Intra-household transmission normally only 17% according to other research.
“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/“
I laughed so hard, the tears ran down me leg. Could explain a lot if you’re getting your misinformation from there!
Elbow in the middle. Arse further down.
You have no idea at all what you are talking about. No Covid vaccine prevents you catching or spreading Covid. You are so stupid the article you link to even states it:
“University of Warwick epidemiologist Mike Tildesley said the findings were significant but pressed people to continue to take up vaccination offers.
“We need to remember these vaccines are not 100% effective either at preventing severe symptoms or at allowing yourself to be infected ….”
By what measure, their extensive trials and PCR tests?
The whole shit-show is rigged. The tests are bollocks, the questions posed in the trials for the Lemsips were inadequate and still yet to be completed and the BBC are a bunch of bare faced cunts. You’re in good company.
Heavens, being young doesn’t look so inviting nowadays!
Last I checked, there had only been five specific cases of American college students who have died from or with COVID. There are approximately 20 million American college students, which means the odds of a college student dying from COVID over the past 14 months are 1-in-4-million.
As I keep posting, the probability a random American will get struck by lightning this year are 1-in-700,000.
Do colleges still teach statistics and probabilities? If so, why?
Some might say that the solution is to coerce college students into wearing a lightning conductor.
😂😂😂🤣🤣
You’re quoting the BBC?
I can’t decide from your posts whether you just like winding people up or are incredibly thick.
Nothing says he can’t be both. See also, Marianna Spring
Our youngest son is currently ‘zooming’ a PHD at Denver University, a private Uni. He was given no choice, have a jab or you can’t continue course and therefore can’t fulfil your visa requirements, therefore will be thrown out of the country. Nice!
He had it, he is early 30s. He has been brainwashed , even though he is usually intelligent, so he has talked as if he didn’t mind. I don’t really know what he really thinks, its a bit difficult having that conversation via a phone link.
Bastards!
For those new to the poster named “fon” please be aware he is of 77 Brigade and not very bright.
Best to ignore him or tell him to:
F. #ck O. ff N. ow