Truth
By R. Rosenfeld. Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, 2012
869 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Having dutifully read the latest medical articles for many, many years, the more I read the more of a skeptic I become. Cynicism has become a way of life, leading me to question why I bother to read journal articles at all. Separating truth from wishful thinking is increasingly arduous, as each study boldly claims to go where no author has gone before, uncovering clandestine wisdom foolishly missed by predecessors. Unfortunately, only rarely does research seem to yield enduring truths, instead providing fleeting fantasy with a barrage of soon-to-be-forgotten grandiose claims. What, then, should I conclude when a single study claims new wisdom? I have nothing against enthusiastic investigators with unshakeable beliefs, but this cannot substitute for rational thought, valid methodology, and transparent reporting. Besides having a magic ball, is there any way to tell if someone trumpeting a new test, device, or therapy is a fool or a prophet? How many articles published 20 years ago, or even 10 for that matter, remain relevant, insightful, and highly cited today? I suspect a rarified few, which immediately calls into question the truth of articles currently published. Before I give up reading journals completely, please help me regain some optimism in discovering real, enduring truth. Truthfully yours, Debra Determined, MD Always Hopeful, USA
Subfields: Pharmacology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/181d93c2d8e84547912605e70851f0076cf97f96
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Pharmacology
Citations in the corpus
- Data collection and quality challenges in deep learning: a data-centric AI perspective (2021, methodology): “Given an example, we take the weighted sum by multiplying the feature values with the weights [2, 1, 1, -2] and, if the sum is at least zero, the model predicts (i.e., the ˆ Y value) recidivism (i.e., Y = 1) and otherwise not (i.e., Y = 0).”
- Functions of the Nonverbal in CMC: Emoticons and Illocutionary Force (2010, background): “Austin and Searle, along with others such as Dummett (1978), hold that they are.”