The business of false science and the ample access to scientific knowledge

Abstract

An international study, performed by a group of journalists reunited in the ‘Fake science’ Project, examined a database with 175,000 articles and presentations from ‘dubious’ conferences and published the results in reputable daily newspapers (like the French Le Monde, the Norwegian Aftenposten, and the German Süd-deutsche Zeitung and Norddeutsche Rundfunk, among others). These results were staggering. There is a very well orchestrated business that has been taking advantage of the injunction imposed to publishers of publishing a great deal. It works like this: the societies that publish ‘dubious’ magazines or organize false scientific conferences write for researchers and companies all over the world and recommend a publication in a scientific journal. Right away they publish– for a fee – the researchers’ contributions, many times without the appropriate examination of the content. In this way, even ‘dubious’ studies come to light without the endorsement of science.