I'm wondering:
(1)Is it possible to get published in a peer-reviewed place even when the result(s) of the experiment is wrong?
e.g. the peer reviewer somehow missed the erroneous result(s).
(2)Is there actually a "bad" published paper? I've heard a lot of of these "there are so many rubbish published papers", but I don't know what it actually means.
1. Even publication that helps one to receive nobel prize can be incorrect.
2. There is some truth in this advice on publication:
If you want to get published, then heed this advice:
Cite your friends at least once and your enemies twice,
Cite the editor three times, yourself at least four,
And write in a style that's intended to bore.
If you want to get published, here's what you must do
Above all: don't come up with anything new. J.E.C.
2. Yes there are lots of bad papers (or in fairness, not great papers!) We set up a jounral club that essentially consists of us ripping papers to pieces! It sometimes seems to me that if your sample size is big then you can get away with publishing any old rubbish! (or maybe I'm bitter becasue I'm struggling to get my small sample size papers accepted!)
Thanks for the replies.
In your own opinion, what does a bad paper mean?
@Meaninginlife:
If you want to get published, then heed this advice:
Cite your friends at least once and your enemies twice,
Cite the editor three times, yourself at least four,
And write in a style that's intended to bore.
If you want to get published, here's what you must do
Above all: don't come up with anything new. J.E.C.
Why do you think this advice is good?
Well I'd strongly recommend googling 'critical appraisal of scientific literature' to get a more in depth perspective, but in brief, there are lots of ways a paper/study can be bad e.g.
- if it has a poorly defined question
- if it uses an inappropriate method to test the hypothesis
- if the method has been incorrectly applied
- if the interpretation wildly overstates the importance of the findings
- if the results are misinterpreted
- if the stats are manipulated to try and salvage something from the wreckage of a poor study or one which would be more honestly reported as negative.
- if it ignores the current understanding of the topic
Some of those occur more rarely than others. I'd say over/mis-interpretation of the results might be the most common.
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