The one line I extracted below tells me volumes about all this work. Besides cherry-picking that was discussed, we also have the issue of some of the articles used as source material were not peer reviewed.
An article built on citation of non-peer reviewed literature, or in this worse case, meta-analysis of non-peer reviewed literature, can not be treated better than the articles that are cited. While we often will cite sources that are not peer reviewed to make a point of emphasis, to illustrate the cultural relevance of a topic, to provide an illustrative example, etc., we should not build our scientific argument on a structure of non-peer reviewed literature. I'm currently co-authoring a paper in which we cite several non-peer reviewed sources, but they are all for the purpose of providing illustrative anecdote and/or to show the widespread incidence of the issue. The scientific arguments are based on other peer reviewed work. Does this sound like a fair thing to tell a student who questions me about the efficacy of anti-depressants: "The studies that cast doubt on efficacy of anti-depressants appear to be relatively poor quality. The most common opinion among mental health professionals and physicians is that they are effective. But, there is enough unevenness in effectiveness that further study is warranted and ongoing to both figure out why that is the case and to determine if superior medications can be devised." Paul C. Bernhardt Department of Psychology Frostburg State University Frostburg, Maryland -----Original Message----- From: Allen Esterson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Mon 2/8/2010 9:40 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Newsweek's Begley bashes antidepressants "As for some of the source articles, the adequacy of peer review is clearly questionable." --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=419 or send a blank email to leave-419-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=423 or send a blank email to leave-423-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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