This blow-by-blow uncovering of BMJ's failing deserves a much wider audience, James. Why not submit this post to Retraction Watch? I did that just this week with the first episode about my experiment of submitting an obviously satirical fake paper (entirely AI generated; about the effects of farting on bystanders) to one of those predatory journals which daily flood my inbox with requests to publish. Retraction Watch's editor, Ivan Oransky, took it up in yesterday's issue.
Your article absolutely needs to see the public light.
The RW know about this, now it's a decision for them. I didn't write it like an RW post because it's much faster if I can just plow through and talk shit.
"Vit-D as the Charlie Brown of supplements (you remember, whenever Charlie Brown positioned the ball for the kick of the century, Lucy snatched it away at the last moment. I am team Lucy when it comes to Vit-D. The Vit-D evangelists DO NOT FIND THIS FUNNY, I know, but maybe you will.)" Yeah. I do. :)
Dude, I have a reading list for you, I think it might be good food for thought and are peppered with stuff you love: Statistics. https://substack.com/@jayjoseph22 Jay Joseph writes here in Substack, in case you did not know.
I don´t know how, legally, in the UK it is considered to variate, change slightly one´s name, specially in the case of the BMA which says it is a trade union and professional body: a Guild interests organization.
But, in México, changing one´s name is a small, petite crime by itself, a fine and/or 180 days community service sort of thing. But from a professional might have other implications: Imagine controlled substance or kidnapping orders, I´ve seen it, I have the prescriptions with an incomplete name. Their provenance is an issue...
That being said, a formal complaint to the DA needs to be solid, otherwise the one denouncing a potential crime might be in trouble for false statements, claiming falsely a crime, among others.
But, it´s an avenue in case someone is impersonating VC.
In México one can look for profesional licenses in a database maintained by the Department of Education, regardless of field of Bachelors, Masters or PhDs, I don´t know in the UK, or somewhere else, France?, Canada?, Haiti?, Algeria?, French Riviera?, Monaco? :).
Medical Certifications in México are also public and are maintained by the collegiate bodies of the specific Medical Specialities and are searchable online. Mine used to be improperly in the Radiology one...
If VC changed names, I guess he/she must have changed also the name on his or her professional certifications/degrees, passport, etc., it might not be just the birth certificate or some identify papers: they won´t match otherwise, and that is serious because it does prove, perhaps, I am not a lawyer and not giving legal advice, the potential crime of making variations on ones name, if that was a crime in the UK, or wherever VC resides.
So, that might be an avenue worth exploring to stop the problem if VC, his or her name, are causal or significant to the problem, either impersonation or name variation, or something else.
OK - so I feel a bit better about still waiting 13 days for a 250-word Rapid Response to appear at different BMJ specialty journal. Thank you for that, James!
I would like to add that I send my own email to the editor about this and got a generic reply many months ago. Thanks for fighting this article.
Excellent. I should have included a caveat that this was silly enough that the likelihood of this was high!
This blow-by-blow uncovering of BMJ's failing deserves a much wider audience, James. Why not submit this post to Retraction Watch? I did that just this week with the first episode about my experiment of submitting an obviously satirical fake paper (entirely AI generated; about the effects of farting on bystanders) to one of those predatory journals which daily flood my inbox with requests to publish. Retraction Watch's editor, Ivan Oransky, took it up in yesterday's issue.
Your article absolutely needs to see the public light.
As an aside, I had similar issues with a Lebanese paper about the effects of VitD on blood pressure, which I dissected in an earlier post for its flaws ("Vitamin D: The “D” Stands For Disinformation, But You Can Fix That."). It's paywalled here on Substack, but here is the Friends link to the article on Medium, in case you are interested (https://medium.com/read-or-die-hq/vitamin-d-the-d-stands-for-disinformation-but-you-can-fix-that-cf14128c586d?sk=28d002a2e7c51f1e428a738f10a30c97).
So, I'm looking forward to seeing your post getting the exposure it deserves.
The RW know about this, now it's a decision for them. I didn't write it like an RW post because it's much faster if I can just plow through and talk shit.
"Vit-D as the Charlie Brown of supplements (you remember, whenever Charlie Brown positioned the ball for the kick of the century, Lucy snatched it away at the last moment. I am team Lucy when it comes to Vit-D. The Vit-D evangelists DO NOT FIND THIS FUNNY, I know, but maybe you will.)" Yeah. I do. :)
Just saw it on RW: Congrats!
Dude, I have a reading list for you, I think it might be good food for thought and are peppered with stuff you love: Statistics. https://substack.com/@jayjoseph22 Jay Joseph writes here in Substack, in case you did not know.
https://theinfinitesimal.substack.com/p/what-are-we-learning-from-the-genes
https://jayjoseph22.substack.com/p/race-science-iq-hereditarianism-and
reminds me of this article i used to report https://pubpeer.com/publications/4D10AB3D8478B70ADEF8539F5CB17F but the editor said the statistics and method were "ok" so not even a correction
I don´t know how, legally, in the UK it is considered to variate, change slightly one´s name, specially in the case of the BMA which says it is a trade union and professional body: a Guild interests organization.
But, in México, changing one´s name is a small, petite crime by itself, a fine and/or 180 days community service sort of thing. But from a professional might have other implications: Imagine controlled substance or kidnapping orders, I´ve seen it, I have the prescriptions with an incomplete name. Their provenance is an issue...
That being said, a formal complaint to the DA needs to be solid, otherwise the one denouncing a potential crime might be in trouble for false statements, claiming falsely a crime, among others.
But, it´s an avenue in case someone is impersonating VC.
In México one can look for profesional licenses in a database maintained by the Department of Education, regardless of field of Bachelors, Masters or PhDs, I don´t know in the UK, or somewhere else, France?, Canada?, Haiti?, Algeria?, French Riviera?, Monaco? :).
Medical Certifications in México are also public and are maintained by the collegiate bodies of the specific Medical Specialities and are searchable online. Mine used to be improperly in the Radiology one...
If VC changed names, I guess he/she must have changed also the name on his or her professional certifications/degrees, passport, etc., it might not be just the birth certificate or some identify papers: they won´t match otherwise, and that is serious because it does prove, perhaps, I am not a lawyer and not giving legal advice, the potential crime of making variations on ones name, if that was a crime in the UK, or wherever VC resides.
So, that might be an avenue worth exploring to stop the problem if VC, his or her name, are causal or significant to the problem, either impersonation or name variation, or something else.
We need a cyber sleuth!, maybe Bellingcat?.
Maybe Valeris is non-binary now. But your explanation seems more likely.
Reminds me of my experiences at Cell a decade ago... https://psblab.org/?p=334
Reminds me of my experiences at Cell a decade ago... https://psblab.org/?p=334
OK - so I feel a bit better about still waiting 13 days for a 250-word Rapid Response to appear at different BMJ specialty journal. Thank you for that, James!