Junk science

"Sound science" redirects here. For the branch of physics, see Acoustics.

Junk science is spurious or fraudulent scientific data, research, or analysis. The concept is often invoked in political and legal contexts where facts and scientific results have a great amount of weight in making a determination. It usually conveys a pejorative connotation that the research has been untowardly driven by political, ideological, financial, or otherwise unscientific motives.

The concept was popularized in the 1990s in relation to expert testimony in civil litigation. More recently, invoking the concept has been a tactic to criticize research on the harmful environmental or public health effects of corporate activities, and occasionally in response to such criticism.

In some contexts, junk science is counterposed to the "sound science" or "solid science" that favors one's own point of view.[1] Junk science has been criticized for undermining public trust in real science.[2]: 110–111  Junk science is not the same as pseudoscience.[3][4]

  1. ^ Neff RA, Goldman LR (2005). "Regulatory parallels to Daubert: stakeholder influence, "sound science," and the delayed adoption of health-protective standards". Am J Public Health. 95 (Suppl 1): S81–91. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.044818. hdl:10.2105/AJPH.2004.044818. PMID 16030344. S2CID 10175577. Archived from the original on 2009-05-17. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  2. ^ Dariusz Jemielniak; Aleksandra Przegalinska (2020). Collaborative Society. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262356459. Archived from the original on 2023-01-17. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  3. ^ Kaufman, Allison B.; Kaufman, James C. (2019-03-12). Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science. MIT Press. p. 471. ISBN 978-0-262-53704-9. Archived from the original on 2024-02-07. Retrieved 2023-11-09. Pseudoscience is different from junk science...
  4. ^ Fang, Ferric C.; Casadevall, Arturo (2023-10-31). Thinking about Science: Good Science, Bad Science, and How to Make It Better. John Wiley & Sons. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-68367-434-4.