# If you wonder why we told you that the paper you cited was shit **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [August 19, 2020, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481 "2020-08-19T09:38:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481/21 "2020-08-26T11:38:00Z")
There’s a lot of crap out there passing itself off as “science”. I believe one big reason is that there is a lot of government money available for research, and people want to tap into it by any means possible. The result is often rushed and shoddy and inaccurate. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481/22 "2020-08-26T11:58:10Z")
So, wait, is the takeaway that citing articles published in _JAMA_ or **NEJM** may be more credible than those from _Homeopathy Weekly_, or the _Liberian Journal of Chrystal Power?_ Woo boy, my chiropractor ain’t gonna like that! Perhaps the _Asian Journal of Medicine and Health_ is _The Onion_ of medical journals? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481/23 "2020-08-28T00:03:15Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I believe one big reason is that there is a lot of government money available for research, and people want to tap into it by any means possible. The result is often rushed and shoddy and inaccurate. The availability of money may be a motivator to get into the effort, and to rush to be first with results, but the real problem is the breakdown of the controls to evaluate and verify the results. Whether it is agenda driven fields like “alternative medicine”, or profit driven research like big pharma, or as the case with coronavirus research, political agendas driving to rush results, the shortcutting of processes and generation of alternative journals as massaging the data are the factors letting poor results make it through. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481/24 "2020-08-28T17:51:52Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > Perhaps the _Asian Journal of Medicine and Health_ is _The Onion_ of medical journals? Looks like they’ve ceased publication, otherwise the _Journal of Irreproducible Results_ would have taken that title. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481/25 "2020-08-28T20:01:43Z")
Look at peer reviewer 2’s comment! > **[Comment\_Editor\_2\_AJMAH\_60013\_v1.pdf](https://sdiarticle4.com/prh/doc/Comment_Editor_2_AJMAH_60013_v1.pdf)** > > 125.75 KB I do wonder, looking at the peer reviewers/editors, if language comes into play. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481/26 "2020-08-28T20:46:17Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Looks like they’ve ceased publication, otherwise the _Journal of Irreproducible Results_ would have taken that title. Mark Abraham still publishes the _Annals of Improbable Research_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wonder-why-we-told-you-that-the-paper-you-cited-was-shit/918481.md?page=1)