Trial By Error, by David Tuller
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A Plea to Fiona Godlee on a Familiar Topic
On Wednesday, I sent the following to Dr Fiona Godlee, editorial director of BMJ. The topic, once again, was the ethically and methodologically challenged Lightning Process study, which was published two years ago in Archives of Disease in Childhood, a BMJ journal. My letter was prompted by the recent appearance of a review paper that…
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A Crowdfunding Wrap-Up
This wrap-up is almost two weeks late, but things keep cropping up! It goes without saying that I am extremely gratified by the support for my April crowdfunding on Berkeley’s in-house platform. The university received 1025 donations totally $103,283 for “Trial By Error.” Of those donations, the most–384–came from the UK. That was more than…
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My Most Recent Exchange with Bristol
Last month, I sent Sue Paterson, Bristol University’s director of legal services, a couple of e-mails seeking answers to several questions. Those e-mails can be read here and here. I cc-d a few other people. On Friday, May 10, I received a response. This morning, I wrote back. I cc-d those I had previously cc-d,…
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My Exchange with the British Journal of General Practice
Update: Not long after I posted this, I sent the following short follow-up note to Dr Jones and the others I’d cc-d: Dear Dr Jones– In re-reading my response to you, I noticed that I made an error in the third paragraph when I referred to the “Improving Access for Psychological Therapies” program. The proper…
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My Letter about MUS to the British Journal of General Practice
Reuters reporter Kate Kelland informed me in January that my habit of routinely sending open letters to researchers and journals to expose what I consider to be bogus studies was “harassment,” according to those who perceive themselves as my victims. Whatever. I disagree that writing lots of letters about violations of core methodological and ethical…
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My Follow-Up Letter to Reuters
Earlier this month, as I have reported, I sent a letter to the Reuters global editor for “ethics and standards” about my concerns relating to last month’s hit piece on ME/CFS patients and me. (I put those words in quotation marks because I have seen little in the reporting and publication of this piece that…
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My Latest Letter to Bristol’s Legal Department
Today I sent the following e-mail to Sue Paterson, director of legal services at Bristol University. I cc-d several other people on the e-mail. ********** Dear Ms Paterson— Earlier this month, I sent you an e-mail to ask, among other questions, when Bristol University plans to finish its investigation of studies that exempted themselves from…
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Jennie Spotila on Collins’ NIH Talk
I’ve never spoken to Francis Collins, who heads the National Institutes of Health. He comes across as a decent, caring man, and by all accounts he is. That’s certainly how he came across in his remarks earlier this month at the NIH’s meeting on ME/CFS research. But anyone who runs the NIH must play politics…
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Crowdfunding Week 3 Matching Grant
Hey folks! As of now I am at 71% of my goal, with eight days to go. So far I have exactly 700 donations. It would be great to get closer to 1000, as in previous years. Today, Erica Verillo has generously offered to match any donations made through this Friday–up to a total of…
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Revisiting the Reuters Story
After Reuters ran that PACE/CBT/GET propaganda piece last month, I sent an e-mail expressing two concerns to Kate Kelland, the reporter, and the two editors listed as having worked on the story. The first concern was that the story falsely said I published my investigation on the blog of a Berkeley colleague. Since Kelland had…
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A Reuters Update
Last Sunday, I sent a letter expressing my concerns about Kate Kelland’s recent article to the appropriate person–the Reuters global editor for ethics and standards. After considering the issues, Reuters has decided to add my current academic title to the post and leave everything else as is. I appreciate the first decision and obviously disagree…
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Crowdfunding, Week 2; and more Sharpe and Chalder
As of this post, I have achieved 57% of my goal, with 542 donations and 15 days left to go. I think that’s pretty good! I’m optimistic about getting reasonably close to the amount I’m trying to raise. Folks at Berkeley certainly notice the success of my crowdfunding. It is an unusual way for academics…