Scientific Integrity is an Oxymoron: Refereed Journals!

By Jon J. Ray,

I would like to thank Jon for allowing me to publish is work.  RK

Refereed Journals: Do They Insure Quality or Enforce Orthodoxy?  The present system, if continued, may seriously impede, if not stop, the advance of science

The paper below  - (actually, linked here) - , by Frank J. Tipler Professor of Mathematical Physics Tulane University New Orleans, was published in 2003 and there have been a few green shoots of doubt about the academic publication process since then.  There has been no systematic change however so the points made are still true to life.

My own experience reinforces everything he says.   With just one highly technical  exception NONE of my papers appeared in "mainstream" (APA) journals.  And the reason is glaringly obvious.  I have always been unwaveringly critical of Leftist ideas, which are the orthodoxy in academe.  So nearly all of my 200+ published papers were published in just three journals with sympathetic editors.  Amusingly, however two of those journals are very widely circulated and cited.  So my papers still got good exposure and appeared in journals that were highly creditable.  As soon as the editors changed, however, my papers ceased to be accepted!

So the bias in the academic journals towards global warming is actually only one subset of a larger and highly discreditable phenomenon.  The excerpts from Tipler below do therefore reinforce the view that ANY overall bias in the academic journals is to be distrusted

There is however now no reason to rely on academic journals as a path to truth.  The internet has made ALL ideas highly accessible and many "incorrect" ideas get good exposure.   So one can readily find all sides to a question aired and make up one's mind based on the balance of the evidence rather than on just one side of it.  Let the defenders of orthodoxy keep mumbling  to one another in their journals  while the rest of us  get on with the real work of understanding the world

NOTE on Christianity:

Tipler is rather amusing  in reporting the way Christianity is regarded with great horror among academics.  I can however confirm the basic truth of what he says.  I have been an unwavering atheist for the whole of my adult life so comments to me on the matter by colleagues have always been unguarded.  And their contempt for Christianity has been almost universal.

I on the other hand have always defended Christian ideas as creditable.  Although I have come to my own conclusions, I feel no need to be dogmatic about it.  And, as I have said before, I think there is better evidence for the divinity of Christ than there is for dangerous global warming!