Scrutable

Juul: Taking Academic Corruption to a New Level
The e-cigarette company bought an entire issue of a scholarly journal, with all the articles written by authors on its payroll, to ‘prove’ that its product has a public benefit.

I find this rather appalling. Even though the journal is long-established and peer reviewed, it is a pay-to-publish journal so it is not entirely surprising that it is possible for a company to do this. Will it harm the journal's reputation?

(Thanks to Tom Scott's newsletter for this story)

That’s really bad.

At least the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was fake from the outset.

I am sad to say that this comes as no surprise whatsoever. Scientific journals as they are now are fundamentally broken. If we're relying on peer review and editorial integrity to pick this stuff up then I wish everyone good luck.