nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/academia-is-doing-fine-actually
1 correction found
Something which is of poor quality is read by no one and influences no one.
This absolute claim is false. Poor-quality and even fraudulent academic work has sometimes been widely read and has had major real-world effects.
Full reasoning
This sentence makes a universal claim: that poor-quality work is never read and never influential. That is contradicted by well-documented cases of bad research that had enormous readership and public impact.
A famous example is Andrew Wakefield's now-retracted 1998 paper claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The paper was later retracted and widely described as fraudulent or seriously flawed, yet it was plainly read and influential:
- A National Academies report says the delayed retraction gave the paper "ample time" to become "an important support for the anti-vaccine movement," and that it contributed to decreased vaccination rates in the United States and United Kingdom.
- A PubMed Central article states that despite the paper's small sample, uncontrolled design, and speculative conclusions, it "received wide publicity" and "MMR vaccination rates began to drop" because parents were alarmed by it.
One such counterexample is enough to show the article's categorical statement is incorrect. Poor-quality work is not automatically ignored; sometimes it is widely consumed and causes significant harm.
2 sources
- Fostering Integrity in Research (National Academies)
A formal retraction did not occur for over a decade, allowing ample time for the purported findings to become an important support for the anti-vaccine movement... contributing to decreased vaccination rates in the United States and United Kingdom.
- The MMR vaccine and autism: Sensation, refutation, retraction, and fraud
Despite the small sample size, the uncontrolled design, and the speculative nature of the conclusions, the paper received wide publicity, and MMR vaccination rates began to drop because parents were concerned about the risk of autism after vaccination.