really great article, though I think it's tough to stress just how prevalent these practices are, especially given all the monetary incentives involved. I mean, just consider the hundreds of billions of dollars that can be extorted from people over the years to solve an intangible issue when "97% of all scientists agree" (as if 97% of anyone could even agree how to tie a shoe lace the "right" way)! lol
They wanted me to help demonstrate just how easy it is to turn bad science into the big headlines behind diet fads. And Onneken wanted to do it gonzo style: Reveal the corruption of the diet research-media complex by taking part.
The call wasn’t a complete surprise. The year before, I had run a sting operation for Science on fee-charging open access journals, a fast-growing and lucrative new sector of the academic publishing business. To find out how many of those publishers are keeping their promise of doing rigorous peer review, I submitted ridiculously flawed papers and counted how many rejected them. (Answer: fewer than half.)
Link: I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.