Scholarly articles used as references in term papers...

Last evening we had an interesting discussion in my MBA class "Maximizing Shareholder Wealth" about the purpose and value of using scholarly, peer-reviewed references in research papers submitted in the class.

There was some question about why this might be important, and what separates scholarly research from other journalistic references, such as articles in popular newspapers and magazines.

The following article appeared last November, but the points it makes are continuously relevant.

Please note that the prestigious scholarly journal Science concluded that "the environment for science now presents increased incentives for the production of work that is intentionally misleading or distorted by self-interest," and that "special attention (be given) to a relatively small number of papers that are likely to be especially visible or influential".

Science said that in 2005 it accepted for publication only 8% of the 12,000 studies submitted.

US journal Science to tighten standards

November 29, 2006

The prestigious United States journal Science will tighten safeguards to prevent a repeat of the 2005 episode when it was forced to retract fraudulent stem-cell research by a South Korean scientist, the magazine's editor said. Editor Donald Kennedy said in a letter published on the journal's website on Tuesday that it accepts the conclusions of a panel looking into the fiasco and vows to elaborate new rules to prevent such fraud. The six-member panel report "points out forcefully that the environment for science now presents increased incentives for the production of work that is intentionally misleading or distorted by self-interest," he wrote. The report "urges us to give a special attention to a relatively small number of papers that are likely to be especially visible or influential". "We are now formulating ways to respond to this advice." The report especially recommends developing a "risk assessment" template. "We have been conducting discussions among ourselves and with the committee members to develop criteria for deciding which papers deserve particularly careful editorial scrutiny," Kennedy wrote. Research papers that may fall in that category include those "that are of substantial public interest, present results that are unexpected and/or counterintuitive, or touch on area of high political controversy". In January Science announced it was retracting an article by South Korean stem-cell scientist Hwang Woo-Suk and others from May 2005 in which the scientist had detailed what was then regarded as startling work on tailoring stem cells. An investigation in Seoul said Hwang had produced no stem cells at all, and that his claims of a breakthrough in stem-cell technology were bogus. Science separately retracted another article by Hwang from 2004 in which he claimed to have derived stem cells from a human embryo. A probe by Seoul National University found that the experiment had been faked. Science said that in 2005 it accepted for publication only 8% of the 12,000 studies submitted. - Reuters