Nov 22, 2020

Chris and Jonathan interview Dr. Ivan Oransky, the co-founder of Retraction Watch which tracks retractions of scientific papers. They discuss how papers get published, how they get retracted, and what a better system might look like.

1:29 How scientific papers get published

3:44 Journals are businesses with a bizarre business model

13:52 No more COVID-related retractions than expected

17:10 Science by press release in part to prevent insider trading

20:04 Jade amulets against COVID-19

26:33 Zombie papers

30:43 A dramatic increase in retractions but they are still rare

36:50 Why are mistakes caught after publication?

42:20 Going to science heaven

* Theme music: “Fall of the Ocean Queen“ by Joseph Hackl.

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Links:

1) The Retraction Watch website: https://retractionwatch.com/

2) Retraction Watch on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RetractionWatch

3) Ivan Oransky on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivanoransky

4) The Retraction Watch newsletter: https://us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=4f35c1f2e9acc58eee0811e78&id=a15d7de264

5) Jonathan’s article on the jade amulet: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking-pseudoscience/paper-argues-amulet-may-protect-covid-should-it-have-been-published

6) Retraction Watch’s original article on the jade amulet: https://retractionwatch.com/2020/10/29/amulets-may-prevent-covid-19-says-a-paper-in-elsevier-journal-they-dont/

7) The jade amulet paper’s retraction notice: https://retractionwatch.com/2020/11/16/co-authors-of-paper-on-covid-19-and-jade-amulets-blames-the-online-press-and-social-media-for-misinterpretation-in-retraction-letter/

8) The Surgisphere retractions: https://retractionwatch.com/2020/06/04/lancet-retracts-controversial-hydroxychloroquine-study/