Tabloid Scientific Journals : A Growing Concern

The relationship between large pharmaceutical companies and publishers of scientific literature can be downright perilous. Elsevier, one of the largest publishers of credible and legitimate scientific publications, finds itself in the midst of a serious controversy after it has been revealed that they have created at least six pseudo-scientific journals. Outrageously, these publications are entirely paid for by pharmaceutical companies.

Of course, it often happens that a publisher like Elsevier, based in the Netherlands, which counts among its publications the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet", which conceded to a malicious contract with a pharmaceutical company and other corporate sponsors, to publish compilations of articles about some of their medications. Such sponsorships are expected to always be precisely identified.

Not in this day and age of mis-information however. An Australian publication, “The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine”, ‘looks’ like a real scientific journal. Unfortunately it is not, and the second issue contained 29 articles - nine of which concerned “Vioxx” and approximately a dozen, “Fosamax” articles, two Merck-Frosst company drugs. All these articles reported impressive amounts of positive findings on these two drugs. Deceivingly, nowhere was it said that Merck-Frosst had paid for all of it and purposefully made it look like a real and credible scientific magazine.

The case, unveiled in the wake of an ongoing lawsuit in Australia, has angered American scientific librarians, including the Progressive Librarians Guild, which has denounced what it considers to be an unacceptable use of the reputation of a credible and prestigious scientific publisher like Elsevier to sell pharmaceutical products. Elsevier’s managing director, Michael Hansen, acknowledged the existence of at least six ‘mediocre’ scientific journals (journals which publish real science alongside junk-science and forgoes the peer review process) created between 2000 and 2005 (but did not accept to name the other five suspected journals) and indicated that those responsible for this case were “no longer working for the publisher”.

“This was an unacceptable practice and we regret that it took place,” Michael Hansen apologized in a press release. Well thank you for your apology sir, but the harm that was done is irreversible. People lost their lives...

The controversy surrounding these fake journals is of even greater concern to physicians and medical practitioners, who are the main readers of such publications. As it is impossible for practitioners to read the entire library of medical literature that appears each month, they often have to rely on abstracts or collections to stay up to date. Poorly reviewed medical literature can lead doctors to make poor decisions, including on drugs that may have dangerous side effects, as was the case with Vioxx.

Merck-Frosst announced, Sept. 30th 2004, a voluntary worldwide withdrawal of rofecoxib (Vioxx) from the marketplace after a study showed patients taking the drug on a long-term basis faced twice the risk of a heart attack compared with patients receiving the placebo.

The FDA originally approved Vioxx in May 1999. The original research database included approximately 5000 patients on Vioxx and did not show an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. It is safe to assume that this conclusion was based on what the FDA believed were credible and peer reviewed studies. We know now that this was, unfortunately, not the case.

The junk-science pandemic is not reserved strictly for medicine and other technologies that benefit humanity, they’ve creeped their way into most facets of existence, including our pets lives. With all of the inane fad diets, it was only a matter of time before these 'snake oil' hucksters marketed one for our pets as well. Enter grain-free dog food.

"The justification for this trend is the notion that since dogs are essentially wolves, and wolves are pure carnivores, then we should not be feeding our dogs grains. This is basically the paleo diet for dogs," Steven Novella explained. But dogs are not wolves. They split from wolves tens of thousands of years ago and have different nutritional requirements, requirements that conventional dog food was entirely adequate at fulfilling.

With the rise of grain-free dog food, however, the FDA has noticed a steep increase in dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs, where the heart is unable to pump enough blood because its left ventricle is enlarged and weakened. Research has found that 91% of reported cases involved dogs fed a grain-free diet.

"This was an entirely unforced error," Novella wrote. "Dog food formulas have been tested and were evidence-based, safe and healthy... However, trying to capitalize on the “clean eating” junk-science nonsense so prevalent in our society today, some pet food manufacturers and pet stores decided to ride the trend. So they promoted an untested and ludicrous product based on dubious science and likely caused completely unnecessary health problems to dogs around the world."

One of the weirdest and most troubling junk-science backed claims is coming out of Thailand where they are selling credit card-sized “health improvement cards” for the equivalent of $35 to $50 USD that they claim can improve the immune system, strengthen the heart, energize the user's metabolism, and purify water.

The cards do absolutely none of those things, of course, and that would be bad enough, but the cards are radioactive to boot! Yes you read that right, Thailand's state nuclear agency actually proved that the cards contain uranium and thorium, giving off radiation at roughly 40 microsieverts per hour. In a thorough study of the ‘health improvement cards’, Steven Novella calculated that a bearer of one of these cards would reach their five-year safe radiation exposure limit in only 104 days of using it. The cards are irradiating people, and junk science is why it’s happening.

The real problem with all of this is that our society is facing a serious problem around scientific credibility. The normal standards of the scientific community have been compromised and this can lead to some very serious effects on humanity as a whole. Scientists are warning the population to be vigilant because we might be coming up on a ‘tipping-point’ of sorts where credible science is indiscernible from junk-science and society may very well lose faith in science entirely.

There are definitely measures being taken to tackle this problem head on. However, for the time being we should all remain skeptical and vigilant, especially here on the internet where it’s currently a free-for-all festival of mis-information. Have faith, logic will prevail and it’s everyone’s responsibility to call out fraudulent claims and educate ourselves so that we are not so easy to fool.

Sources :

https://www.lapresse.ca/sciences/en-vrac/200906/08/01-863937-faux-journaux-pour-vrais-medecins.php

http://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/subcontent/elsevier.shtml

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC526313/

https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/12/17/the_biggest_junk_science_of_2019.html

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16211947

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Novella