The Lancet has come under fresh attack for poor editorial judgment and publishing unfounded scare stories.
A number of leading scientists wrote a letter – which the Lancet has declined to publish – setting out their concerns:
The signatories, thirty fellows of the Royal Society, two of whom are Nobel laureates, accuse it of favouring “desperate headline-seeking” over sound science, to the detriment of public health. “Under the editorship of Richard Horton, the publication of badly conducted and poorly refereed scare stories has had devastating consequences for individual and public health, in the UK and abroad
Professor Mark Pepys, of the Royal Free Hospital, London, who drafted the letter, said: “The Pusztai and MMR papers are the two most serious examples. The MMR study was not well reviewed — it was a disgracefully bad piece of work and the decision to publish it was clearly scaremongering.
via Mick Hartley
