10/n Now, one thing to note is that these are judgement calls rather than actual scientific critiques. We laid out our methodology quite transparently – saying that this is “implausible” is an opinion, not a fact
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21/n It is also worth noting that while I am still doing my PhD, I have been working in public health for more than half a decade, because often the more sought-after qualification is an MPH not PhD
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22/n I appreciate the many wonderful people who have come to my defense against these attacks, but in all honesty it’s not me that I’m worried about. For better or worse, I have a large platform, and I’m not in any huge danger from a professor being publicly mean to mepic.twitter.com/94u313SGFy
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23/n But imagine, for a second, that I had not been in the news a bit and grown a social media platform. Imagine I was one of 1,000s of faceless PhD students watching a tenured professor at Stanford publicly defame one of their comrades It’s quite chilling
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24/n I may have the wherewithal to defend myself, and I’ll be writing to the journal, but the implication that PhD students have no place in scientific discourse, that their papers are worthless scientifically will, I think, have far greater ramifications
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25/n Imagine reading this as a PhD student at Stanford. This is a senior faculty member telling these students that no matter what work they do, their opinions will always come second to professors Not what I would hope the scientific discourse to be
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26/n This issue is not a new one by a long shot.
@hertzpodcast covered the issues that PhD students face several times in great detail – I recommend you listenhttps://everythinghertz.com/96Show this thread -
27/n I could point out that our paper was reviewed by several very senior epis before we submitted it (including one of the most senior epis in Australia), but that they did not feel they contributed enough to add their names – perhaps this would’ve saved me a tongue-lashing
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28/n But the point is that we should not have to have Big Fancy Professors on our paper for it to be considered on its own merits. I’m sure we could have twisted our colleagues’ arms, but we did not think that a professor would stoop to our PhDs as a means of attack
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29/n I will be writing to the European Journal of Clinical Investigation. Given that the immediate past Editor In Chief was one professor John Ioannidis, I’m not sure it will do much good, but at least I will have my saypic.twitter.com/oJ6qTSvHoS
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30/n But for anyone reading this who is mentoring PhD students, particularly people at Stanford, I would suggest strongly that you check in and assure them that you do indeed find their opinions and perspectives useful
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31/n As to the paper itself? There are obviously more issues – covered here in depth by
@AtomsksSanakan – but oddly enough there are also places where Prof Ioannidis and I agree about our paperhttps://twitter.com/AtomsksSanakan/status/1375935382139834373?s=20 …
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32/n Perhaps that is because many of the issues he raises about our meta-analysis are pointed out by ourselves in our discussion. Regardless, it would perhaps have been interesting to discuss these in the Journal if not for the unfortunate attacks
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33/n Oddly enough, I think that the personal nature of the attack has effectively “silenced” criticism, at least in the EJCI. I do not think I would ever trust the editors of a journal that published attacks such as this and I’m not going to submit an official letter in response
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34/n That being said, it’s worth noting that I’m not the only person being targeted here.
@LeaMerone, my co-author and a spectacular public health physician, is also being derided for still working on her (I believe) 4th postgraduate degreeShow this thread -
35/n More broadly, I think that this sort of punching down is truly unacceptable in academic debate. It is unprofessional, unscientific, and quite depressing to see
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36/n Thanks again for every person who has reached out. I cannot express how much it means to me to have the support of such wonderful people as all of you
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37/ One other thing - I do not think it is reasonable to infer from Prof Ioannidis' behaviour to anyone else. I know some of his former colleagues and students and they are all lovely people and excellent researchers
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End of conversation
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