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James Coyne blog on "uninterpretable" PACE trial is #11 in PLOS One's 2015 top reads

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
James Coyne on FB said:
I'm very pleased to send at the good company with which this PLOS Blogs recognition puts me in as 11th in 2015 single day visits for my PLOS Mind the Brain post about the interpretability of the PACE chronic fatigue trial.

PLOS blogs has had to have some patience with me. The powerful editor of the Lancet, Richard Horton, tried to get me dropped as a blogger with PLOS and muzzled on social media, like Facebook and Twitter. His threatening behavior stimulated a lot of discussions. But we weathered that.

https://www.facebook.com/james.c.coyne/posts/10208988606379209?pnref=story

http://blogs.plos.org/scicomm/2015/...r-on-plos-blogs-network/#.VoCQytvmgac.twitter
 

TiredSam

The wise nematode hibernates
Messages
2,677
Location
Germany
#1 is well worth a read, and in a way relevant to some of the issues (psychologising of our illness leading to patient-blaming for example) that we face.

It is easy to construct personal narratives that pit us as protagonists. We imagine ourselves bravely making a series of decisions that bring us success, love, and money while those around us make the poor choices that condemn them to failure, loneliness, and destitution. It is gratifying to believe that we are the sole operating agents of our own lives. It is uplifting to believe in stories of redemption, wherein those with nothing make the independent choice to strive and turn their lives around. It is unsettling to imagine the great fortune we have in a confluence of circumstances that is entirely outside of our control.
 

leela

Senior Member
Messages
3,290
The fact that Richard Horton tried to interfere with his employment and his right to free speech is also something worth not skipping over.
Bad days for science and humanity when having a different opinion, or even interest in properly formulating one, can bring such vengeful backlash from
an alleged academic tasked with publishing the search for truth...
Doubleplus ungood!!
 
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CFS_for_19_years

Hoarder of biscuits
Messages
2,396
Location
USA
Other relevant topics in that list:

#2 "How Often Should You Shower" only gets you off the hook for two to three days.:whistle:

#14 That All-Nighter is not without Neuroconsequences.....we know, we know.:(
Saving the word "neuroconsequences" for the next meaningful discussion.:nerd:
 

chipmunk1

Senior Member
Messages
765
What's next?

Coyne is a terrorist and has sent death threats to scientists?

Coyne is doing exactly what should be done according to Dr. Horton and despite that he is trying to silence him?

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60696-1/fulltext

Dr. Richard Horton said:
“A lot of what is published is incorrect.” I'm not allowed to say who made this remark because we were asked to observe Chatham House rules. We were also asked not to take photographs of slides. Those who worked for government agencies pleaded that their comments especially remain unquoted, since the forthcoming UK election meant they were living in “purdah”—a chilling state where severe restrictions on freedom of speech are placed on anyone on the government's payroll. Why the paranoid concern for secrecy and non-attribution? Because this symposium—on the reproducibility and reliability of biomedical research, held at the Wellcome Trust in London last week—touched on one of the most sensitive issues in science today: the idea that something has gone fundamentally wrong with one of our greatest human creations.

The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. As one participant put it, “poor methods get results”....

......The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data.....

....One of the most convincing proposals came from outside the biomedical community. Tony Weidberg is a Professor of Particle Physics at Oxford. Following several high-profile errors, the particle physics community now invests great effort into intensive checking and re-checking of data prior to publication. By filtering results through independent working groups, physicists are encouraged to criticise. Good criticism is rewarded. The goal is a reliable result, and the incentives for scientists are aligned around this goal.

The reward that Coyne is getting is that they are trying to get him fired!
 
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TiredSam

The wise nematode hibernates
Messages
2,677
Location
Germany
What's next?

Pardon me for responding to a rhetorical question, but I have been enhancing my belief system with the power of positive thinking, and can confidently predict that the PACE team and their supporters will be marginalised, ridiculed, ignored, and finally brought to account and disgraced. Scientific research will continue apace (so to speak), leading to a host of new treatments and finally a cure.
 

worldbackwards

Senior Member
Messages
2,051
Pardon me for responding to a rhetorical question, but I have been enhancing my belief system with the power of positive thinking, and can confidently predict that the PACE team and their supporters will be marginalised, ridiculed, ignored, and finally brought to account and disgraced. Scientific research will continue apace (so to speak), leading to a host of new treatments and finally a cure.
You've had one too many CBTs there I think. But it is Christmas! :)
 
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Sean

Senior Member
Messages
7,378
Sayeth Richard Horton:
The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. As one participant put it, “poor methods get results”....

......The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data.....
Dammit! Somebody owes me another irony meter. :mad: