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Examples of Bad Research Articles
- Lancet Study: This infamous article actually started the anti-vaccination movement. It has since been retracted, but the publication's damage has been done. This study is flawed because it draws a connection between vaccines and autism, only pooling from a sample size of twelve children.
- Climate Change Denial: This study is not actually a peer-reviewed journal article, but it is published to make the reader believe that this is the case. Notice that there is no journal title anywhere. This is an instant red flag. Also look at the references. There are only six, five of which are the author of the article we're examining.
- Author Qualifications: This is an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Barack Obama. While he is the president of the United States, he is not necessarily qualified to publish in a medical journal. He might be discussing the effects of his law, but JAMA came under a lot of fire for publishing this article.
- Funding and Conflicts of Interest: This article is notorious for conflict of interest and funding issues. The recommended information directly ties to products sold by the funding organization, and the conflict of interest of one of the authors is such that they would benefit from the sale of the recommended treatment for fibromyalgia. Also notice the retraction notice mentions how the results are inconsistent with the research, which was done in a shoddy manner to start.
