Bad literature / Selective observation?

[xMoorez]

Hi guys and gals!

 

Does anybody recall reading any scientific articles that show clear biased or selective observation?

 

I'm currently reviewing literature and despite having searched long and hard I find myself totally unable to find articles that show clear selective observation, and neglect of factors that ultimately affect any conclusion drawn from the results.

 

For example; if someone were to complete a study that used an aquatic species with end result drawn being pH, then that person would have to account for respiration that occurred during the time the species were in the water body, as respiration could lead to a decrease in pH.

 

Having given that as an example, it isn't quite what i'm expecting to find (although it'd be beautiful), but any study involving an aquatic species that neglects a potentially result altering factor would be absolutely ideal.

 

Thanks for your time!

[CharonY]

Well, the problem is that those that are clearly faulty tend to be caught during review. The issues are often quite minute. More common is that observations are overblown.

What I can think of are some high-profile papers like Wolfe-Simon at al, 2011 in Science which claimed that a bacterium could use arsenic instead of phosphorous which has really weak evidence (and can and has been disproven via a simple experiment).

Another one is from Gorbi et al in PNAS in which they claimed to found bacterial appendages with ohmic conductive behaviour. Not only does it not make any sense, but it seems rather obvious that they measured an artifact.

 

Typically these things (well the arsenic one was rather obvious, but still) are not necessarily due to bias but often due to the inexperience of the authors in a particular field leading to misinterpretation. There may be still be a role in bias (i.e. they may have neglected negative results) but that is harder to trace without looking at all the data that was done in the lab.

 

Alternatively look at retracted papers, often you will find serious flaws in methodologies there.

Edited April 28, 2015 by CharonY

[Acme]

Hi guys and gals!

 

Does anybody recall reading any scientific articles that show clear biased or selective observation?

...

Thanks for your time!

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