I don't disagree with you, but this is a horribly sad comment. I worry that the text of papers often gives short shrift to nuance and subtlety that is necessary for reasonable interpretation.
I once read a lot of medical papers -- probably a few hundreds. There was often no real connection between the reported data and the conclusion. Sometimes the conclusion was along the lines of "a weak relation between X and Y was found" but the data showed a strong relation. Sometimes it was the opposite. Sometimes the conclusion was that X was good but the data showed X was bad. Sometimes it was the opposite.
It was almost as if many of the authors couldn't do the kind of math expected of high schoolers that apply to university to study science.
My takeaway was 1) to deeply distrust doctors as scientists (and as people who could think) and 2) mostly ignore the text surrounding the tables and graphs and just go straight to the data.
peterfirefly|2 years ago
It was almost as if many of the authors couldn't do the kind of math expected of high schoolers that apply to university to study science.
My takeaway was 1) to deeply distrust doctors as scientists (and as people who could think) and 2) mostly ignore the text surrounding the tables and graphs and just go straight to the data.
kevviiinn|2 years ago