• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Help needed! : Scientific Rebuttals

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
This team still needs someone with knowledge of anorexia, and also of psychology in general. There is A LOT of psychobabble that needs to be set straight!
 

Tammie

Senior Member
Messages
793
Location
Woodridge, IL
I am in the middle of major crashing and family issues; however, I do have a ton of knowledge (both personal and professional) about anorexia (& bulimia, too) and I have a masters degree in cousneling.......depeding on exactly what you need & how soon, I'd love to help
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
Tammie, this is good news! Can you get in touch with Dolphin who is preparing this rebuttal? It will only be for answering whatever questions he has.
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
Tammie, this is good news! Can you get in touch with Dolphin who is preparing this rebuttal? It will only be for answering whatever questions he has.
Just to clarify: I am not preparing a rebuttal.
The journal does not have a letters to the editor facility as far as I can see.
I also haven't seen the full text of the article, know very little about anorexia and have major gaps in my knowledge of psychology in general (having never taken a class in it).

But I am interested in the topic of rebuttals and letters to the editor in general and have had 9 published (8 in last 18 months or so; submitted another one about 2 months ago (no word yet either way) and am in the process of writing two more (one is nearly finished, have only done first draft of other one)]. I am willing to help with letters **as able** e.g. with references from the CFS literature, which I have a reasonably good knowledge of (but my knowledge is certainly far from comprehensive).
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
hey awol, just came in for perusal of top threads and saw this one today, please feel free to shoot me a private note, I am asleep at the wheel with these cfs boards sometimes as I drop in a lot but not in any organized way and I do have a parttime job that takes up a lot of energy so brain is diffuse when i do stumble onto threads here. I will try to think of best way I could be of help with activism in future, shoot me a note if there are things anyone could do, composing footnoted letters isnt my forte but I am happy to add signatures.....now out the door for late brunch as it were
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
Just to clarify: I am not preparing a rebuttal.
The journal does not have a letters to the editor facility as far as I can see.
I also haven't seen the full text of the article, know very little about anorexia and have major gaps in my knowledge of psychology in general (having never taken a class in it).

But I am interested in the topic of rebuttals and letters to the editor in general and have had 9 published (8 in last 18 months or so; submitted another one about 2 months ago (no word yet either way) and am in the process of writing two more (one is nearly finished, have only done first draft of other one)]. I am willing to help with letters **as able** e.g. with references from the CFS literature, which I have a reasonably good knowledge of (but my knowledge is certainly far from comprehensive).

Ok, I guess I was mistaken, sorry! One idea floating around though was to make a library of rebuttals in our Wiki. That way, even when a journal does not accept letters, we could still have a brief rebuttal ready there, and refer people to it as required. I realize this would take more help though!
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
hey awol, just came in for perusal of top threads and saw this one today, please feel free to shoot me a private note, I am asleep at the wheel with these cfs boards sometimes as I drop in a lot but not in any organized way and I do have a parttime job that takes up a lot of energy so brain is diffuse when i do stumble onto threads here. I will try to think of best way I could be of help with activism in future, shoot me a note if there are things anyone could do, composing footnoted letters isnt my forte but I am happy to add signatures.....now out the door for late brunch as it were

Heya,

Just so you know, the team lists are available on the sticky on the other forum. You can get in touch with teammates through that, and also can join in on the discussion threads for your team. I have a whole lot of personal obligations for the next few weeks and can no longer do any coordination. Teams are up and running somewhat on their own, and v99 is in charge of keeping people motivated.
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
One idea floating around though was to make a library of rebuttals in our Wiki. That way, even when a journal does not accept letters, we could still have a brief rebuttal ready there, and refer people to it as required. I realize this would take more help though!
This page was set up: http://www.mecfsforums.com/wiki/Forum_Scientific_Rebuttals . Currently it just appears to have one entry, Gerwyn's comment on the Switzer et al. retrovirology paper.

It certainly would be useful.

For me, I have a lot of responsibilities. What I am most interested is getting letters (or other articles) into print. A letter (or whatever) usually takes a bit of time - it is not simply an E-mail/post to a forum. A lot of journals will have word limits (or if they don't have official ones, one still shouldn't expect a very long letter to be published); some journals will only let one quote 5 references (which is really 4 references as one has to quote what one is replying to). "Rebuttals" that aren't going in, if they have references, would be better than forum posts - but for me, forum posts on a thread on a paper discussing faults are still useful. But what I really want to see are letters being submitted esp. ones that have a reasonable chance of people published.
 

awol

Senior Member
Messages
417
Yes, I agree. Wherever possible, actual rebuttals should be submitted to the journals. We can keep a collection of them all in the Wiki, including ones that are important, but that it is not possible to submit to the journal (or any other journal).
 

WillowJ

คภภเє ɠรค๓թєl
Messages
4,940
Location
WA, USA
Is there still an active group doing letters and things? I can't help with this right this minute (i.e. not this week, for instance), but I would be glad to help when I can. I have a bachelor degree in biology. Not impressive to Ph.D.'s I know, but it's a start and tells you where my knowledge base is.
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
Is there still an active group doing letters and things? I can't help with this right this minute (i.e. not this week, for instance), but I would be glad to help when I can. I have a bachelor degree in biology. Not impressive to Ph.D.'s I know, but it's a start and tells you where my knowledge base is.
That's great, WillowJ. No active group on PR that I know of but hopefully people will note your offer. I send in letters now and then so you may hear from me some time. We need more people writing in. It frustrates me how many things have been published over the last 15 years that were never replied to - I think it has enabled some people to make grander and grander claims e.g. CBT based on GET leads to full recovery, knowing they probably won't be challenged.