{"id":37386,"date":"2017-01-04T11:25:05","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T19:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37386"},"modified":"2017-01-04T11:25:05","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T19:25:05","slug":"quickly-spot-dodgy-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\/","title":{"rendered":"How to quickly spot dodgy science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/blackhole.jpeg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/blackhole.jpeg\" alt=\"blackhole\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/blackhole.jpeg 1280w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/blackhole-250x141.jpeg 250w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/blackhole-926x521.jpeg 926w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t got time for science, or at least not all of it. I cannot read <a href=\"http:\/\/esoads.eso.org\/cgi-bin\/nph-abs_connect?db_key=AST&amp;db_key=PRE&amp;qform=AST&amp;arxiv_sel=astro-ph&amp;sim_query=YES&amp;ned_query=YES&amp;adsobj_query=YES&amp;aut_logic=AND&amp;obj_logic=OR&amp;author=&amp;object=&amp;start_mon=1&amp;start_year=2015&amp;end_mon=12&amp;end_year=2015&amp;ttl_logic=OR&amp;title=&amp;txt_logic=OR&amp;text=&amp;nr_to_return=200&amp;start_nr=1&amp;jou_pick=ALL&amp;ref_stems=ApJ%2C+A%26A%2C+AJ%2C+MNRAS%2C+PASA%2C+PASP%2C+PASJ&amp;data_and=ALL&amp;group_and=ALL&amp;start_entry_day=&amp;start_entry_mon=&amp;start_entry_year=&amp;end_entry_day=&amp;end_entry_mon=&amp;end_entry_year=&amp;min_score=&amp;sort=CITATIONS&amp;data_type=SHORT&amp;aut_syn=YES&amp;ttl_syn=YES&amp;txt_syn=YES&amp;aut_wt=1.0&amp;obj_wt=1.0&amp;ttl_wt=0.3&amp;txt_wt=3.0&amp;aut_wgt=YES&amp;obj_wgt=YES&amp;ttl_wgt=YES&amp;txt_wgt=YES&amp;ttl_sco=YES&amp;txt_sco=YES&amp;version=1\">9,000<\/a> astrophysics papers every year. No way.<\/p>\n<p>And I have little patience for bad science, which gets more media attention than it deserves. Even the bad science is overwhelming. <a href=\"http:\/\/retractionwatch.com\/2016\/03\/24\/retractions-rise-to-nearly-700-in-fiscal-year-2015-and-psst-this-is-our-3000th-post\/\">700 papers are retracted annually<\/a>, and that\u2019s a gross underestimate of the bad science in circulation.<\/p>\n<p>I, like most scientists, filter what I read using a few tricks for quickly rejecting bad science. Each trick isn\u2019t foolproof, but in combination they\u2019re rather useful. They can help identify bad science in just minutes rather than hours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Okay, this looks bad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Good science is often meticulous and somewhat anxious. You discover something new or find something unexpected, and frankly you worry a lot about screwing up. Identifying and addressing what could plausibly go wrong, and then writing that up succinctly, takes time. Lots of time. Months. Even years.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re taking the time to do meticulous science, why not take the time to prepare a good manuscript? Make nice-looking figures, proofread it a couple of times, and the like. It seems obvious enough, which is why a sloppy manuscript or poor grammar can be a warning sign of bad science.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1610.03031\">Ermanno Borra and Eric Trottier<\/a> claimed to have detected \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1610.03031\">signals probably from extraterrestrial intelligence<\/a>\u201d. I thought this was far-fetched, but still worth looking at the <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/1610.03031v1.pdf\">paper preprint<\/a>. An immediate red flag for me was some blurry graphs, and figures with captions that weren\u2019t on the same page.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"786034462601555968\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>Was my caution justified? Well, as I dug into the paper more there were other warning signs. For example, the results relied on Fourier analysis, a mathematical method that can be powerful but is also notorious for picking up <a href=\"https:\/\/seti.berkeley.edu\/bl_sdss_seti_2016.pdf\">artefacts from scientific instruments and data processing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the surprising conclusions relied on a tiny subset of data, and there was <a href=\"https:\/\/seti.berkeley.edu\/bl_sdss_seti_2016.pdf\">no attempt to confirm<\/a> the conclusions with additional observations. If they were being meticulous, wouldn\u2019t they have taken the time to collect more data and properly format their manuscript? I\u2019m very sceptical of Borra and Trottier\u2019s aliens, <a href=\"https:\/\/seti.berkeley.edu\/bl_sdss_seti_2016.pdf\">as are many of my colleagues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are exceptions to good-looking good science. The announcement of the Higgs boson, which featured fantastic science, included slide designs that did not impress Vincent Connare, the creator of Comic Sans.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"220421676020678656\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>To be honest, I\u2019m with Connare on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2012\/7\/4\/3136652\/cern-scientists-comic-sans-higgs-boson\">slides<\/a>. However, this is a reminder that tricks for quickly flagging bad science are imperfect shortcuts, not absolute rules.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Obviously<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s obvious, why didn\u2019t someone think of that before?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, perhaps someone did.<\/p>\n<p>It has recently been claimed that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/srep35596\">expansion of the universe may not be accelerating<\/a>, which seems at odds with some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/nobel_prizes\/physics\/laureates\/2011\/\">Nobel Prizewinning research<\/a>. That claim relies on a statistical analysis of supernova data. However, such analyses are nothing new.<\/p>\n<p>Enter keywords into a <a href=\"http:\/\/adsabs.harvard.edu\/cgi-bin\/nph-abs_connect?db_key=AST&amp;db_key=PRE&amp;qform=AST&amp;arxiv_sel=astro-ph&amp;arxiv_sel=cond-mat&amp;arxiv_sel=cs&amp;arxiv_sel=gr-qc&amp;arxiv_sel=hep-ex&amp;arxiv_sel=hep-lat&amp;arxiv_sel=hep-ph&amp;arxiv_sel=hep-th&amp;arxiv_sel=math&amp;arxiv_sel=math-ph&amp;arxiv_sel=nlin&amp;arxiv_sel=nucl-ex&amp;arxiv_sel=nucl-th&amp;arxiv_sel=physics&amp;arxiv_sel=quant-ph&amp;arxiv_sel=q-bio&amp;sim_query=YES&amp;ned_query=YES&amp;adsobj_query=YES&amp;aut_logic=OR&amp;obj_logic=OR&amp;author=&amp;object=&amp;start_mon=&amp;start_year=&amp;end_mon=&amp;end_year=&amp;ttl_logic=AND&amp;title=supernova+cosmology&amp;txt_logic=OR&amp;text=&amp;nr_to_return=200&amp;start_nr=1&amp;jou_pick=ALL&amp;ref_stems=&amp;data_and=ALL&amp;group_and=ALL&amp;start_entry_day=&amp;start_entry_mon=&amp;start_entry_year=&amp;end_entry_day=&amp;end_entry_mon=&amp;end_entry_year=&amp;min_score=&amp;sort=CITATIONS&amp;data_type=SHORT&amp;aut_syn=YES&amp;ttl_syn=YES&amp;txt_syn=YES&amp;aut_wt=1.0&amp;obj_wt=1.0&amp;ttl_wt=0.3&amp;txt_wt=3.0&amp;aut_wgt=YES&amp;obj_wgt=YES&amp;ttl_wgt=YES&amp;txt_wgt=YES&amp;ttl_sco=YES&amp;txt_sco=YES&amp;version=1\">search engine<\/a>, and you find many previous studies, but without the unexpected conclusions. That\u2019s a red flag right there.<\/p>\n<p>So what happened? Well, one can study up on supernovae or cosmology, but there are experts on Twitter providing succinct explanations and informed responses.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-2\" class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"790693490145370113\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe> <iframe id=\"twitter-widget-3\" class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"790844700840202240\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe> <iframe id=\"twitter-widget-4\" class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\" title=\"Twitter Tweet\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"790859922720247808\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>In plain English, you can only claim that evidence for the accelerating expansion of the universe is marginal if you make make incorrect assumptions about supernova properties and brush aside other key observations. And thus facepalm.<\/p>\n<p>Cosmologist Tamara Davis has <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/relax-the-expansion-of-the-universe-is-still-accelerating-67691\">noted<\/a> that such omissions, accompanied by emphasis on a contrarian conclusion, tend to be misleading spin. Unfortunately, such omissions and erroneous assumptions <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/no-we-arent-heading-into-a-mini-ice-age-44677\">turn up elsewhere too<\/a>.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_37388\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/drspock.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37388\" src=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/drspock.jpeg\" alt=\"Did they just brush aside two decades of cosmology? Paramout \" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/drspock.jpeg 680w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/drspock-250x188.jpeg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-37388\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Did they just brush aside two decades of cosmology? Paramout<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rank Journals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may be aware that some scientific journals come with a certain prestige. There are journal rankings, which typically place the journals <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/index.html\">Nature<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/\">Science<\/a> near the top, and university rankings often use papers in prestigious journals as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/2010\/100303\/full\/464016a.html\">a proxy for quality<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t care much for journal rankings myself. Nature and Science chase blockbuster results, but this leads to them publishing a few too many wrong and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/news\/2015\/05\/science-retracts-gay-marriage-paper-without-agreement-lead-author-lacour\">even fraudulent results<\/a>. For example, the contrarian supernova paper was published in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/srep35596\">Nature\u2019s Scientific Reports<\/a>, which is an online, open access, multidisciplinary journal that is published by the same group as Nature.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_37389\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/journals.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37389\" src=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/journals.jpeg\" alt=\"How do you tell which of these journal articles can be trusted? Shutterstock \" width=\"680\" height=\"278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/journals.jpeg 680w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/journals-250x102.jpeg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-37389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How do you tell which of these journal articles can be trusted? Shutterstock<\/p><\/div><br \/>\nWhile I don\u2019t care for journal rankings, I do care about <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/rank#british-1-2-3\">rank<\/a> journals. If you submit your research to a decent journal, you have to assume you will (or could) get a meticulous editor and referee. That should force you to take some care with your research. However, if you know your paper will be accepted without proper peer review, then anything goes.<\/p>\n<p>University of Colorado librarian <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarlyoa.com\/about\/\">Jeffrey Beall<\/a> maintains a list of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/scholarlyoa.com\/publishers\/\">predatory publishers<\/a>\u201d, which includes vanity academic publishers that provide a veneer of peer review. Effectively, it is Beall\u2019s list of rank journals, and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/vanity-and-predatory-academic-publishers-are-corrupting-the-pursuit-of-knowledge-45490\">I treat papers in those journals with suspicion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So I wasn\u2019t too surprised when a journal on Beall\u2019s list published a paper promoting the <a href=\"http:\/\/retractionwatch.com\/2016\/07\/18\/author-loses-2nd-paper-on-supposed-dangers-of-chemtrails\/\">chemtrails conspiracy theory<\/a>. And I wasn\u2019t surprised to find that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metabunk.org\/debunked-j-marvin-herndons-geoengineering-articles-in-current-science-india-and-ijerph.t6456\/\">paper had serious failings<\/a>. For better and worse, my cynicism is justified all too often.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Author Bio: <\/strong>Michael J. I. Brown is an Associate professor at Monash University <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I haven\u2019t got time for science, or at least not all of it. I cannot read 9,000 astrophysics papers every year. No way. And I have little patience for bad science, which gets more media attention than it deserves. Even the bad science is overwhelming. 700 papers are retracted annually, and that\u2019s a gross underestimate [&hellip;]\n&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\/\" class=\"more\">learn more&rarr;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":37387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[42632],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-37386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-tech","tag-dodgy-science"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to quickly spot dodgy science - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to quickly spot dodgy science - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I haven\u2019t got time for science, or at least not all of it. I cannot read 9,000 astrophysics papers every year. No way. And I have little patience for bad science, which gets more media attention than it deserves. Even the bad science is overwhelming. 700 papers are retracted annually, and that\u2019s a gross underestimate [&hellip;]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-04T19:25:05+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/blackhole.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"How to quickly spot dodgy science\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-04T19:25:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":903,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/blackhole.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"dodgy science\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science and Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to quickly spot dodgy science - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/blackhole.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-04T19:25:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/blackhole.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/blackhole.jpeg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to quickly spot dodgy science\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer &amp; 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The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to quickly spot dodgy science - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/quickly-spot-dodgy-science\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to quickly spot dodgy science - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"I haven\u2019t got time for science, or at least not all of it. I cannot read 9,000 astrophysics papers every year. No way. And I have little patience for bad science, which gets more media attention than it deserves. 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