
Scholars gulled academic journals to publish hoax papers on ‘grievance studies.’ - barry-cotter
http://www.wsj.com/articles/fake-news-comes-to-academia-1538520950
======
barry-cotter
[https://thewest.com.au/news/world/fake-academic-scandal-
adol...](https://thewest.com.au/news/world/fake-academic-scandal-adolf-
hitlers-mein-kampf-words-used-in-embarrassing-journal-hoax-ng-b88979974z)

> A trio of concerned academics has published seven intentionally absurd
> papers in leading scholarly journals, making bizarre recommendations
> including chaining up children and keeping men on leashes.

> The trio say the papers, which used fabricated authors and credentials, are
> an attempt to expose political bias in fields that study race, gender and
> sexuality, which they see as being misled by biased research and poor
> methodology.

[https://quillette.com/2018/10/01/the-grievance-studies-
scand...](https://quillette.com/2018/10/01/the-grievance-studies-scandal-five-
academics-respond/)

> For the past year scholars James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter
> Boghossian have sent fake papers to various academic journals which they
> describe as specialising in activism or “grievance studies.” Their stated
> mission has been to expose how easy it is to get “absurdities and morally
> fashionable political ideas published as legitimate academic research.” To
> date, their project has been successful

~~~
smt88
None of the tricked journals appear to be "leading" in any meaningful way.
This mostly looks like a non-story.

~~~
barry-cotter
Hypatia is the top journal in feminist philosophy.

[https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/philos...](https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/philosophy-
journal-rankings/)

> It can also be difficult to get publications in Hypatia taken seriously by
> one’s department: I know of at least one junior faculty member who was told
> that she needed to get some more ‘mainstream’ publications, despite her
> publication in Hypatia, the top journal in her field.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_(journal)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_\(journal\))

Hypatia is the highest ranked journal in feminist philosophy. It has an impact
factor of 0.712.

> The flagship feminist philosophy journal, Hypatia, accepted a paper (not yet
> published online) arguing that social justice advocates should be allowed to
> make fun of others, but no one should be permitted to make fun of them. The
> same journal invited resubmission of a paper arguing that “privileged
> students shouldn’t be allowed to speak in class at all and should just
> listen and learn in silence,” and that they would benefit from “experiential
> reparations” that include “sitting on the floor, wearing chains, or
> intentionally being spoken over.”

~~~
smt88
1\. Leading a niche isn't the same as "leading"

2\. The writeups above suggest that they're pointing out that bad science gets
into journals, which doesn't apply here -- a philosophy journal can and should
publish non-science work

~~~
nan0
> 1\. Leading a niche isn't the same as "leading"

Are you calling feminist philosophy a niche or general philosophy a niche?
Yes, if you are leading a niche, you are leading still.

> 2\. The writeups above suggest that they're pointing out that bad science
> gets into journals, which doesn't apply here -- a philosophy journal can and
> should publish non-science work

>Feminist philosophy, more than most areas of philosophy, needs to be informed
by real-world information and examples.

[https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/about/](https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/about/)

