A science blogger has revealed three medical journals published a fake scientific study littered with absurd Star Wars references in a “sting operation” orchestrated by them.
The blogger, who goes by the name Neuroskeptic, wrote in a post on Discover Magazine that they “wanted to test whether ‘predatory’ journals would publish an obviously absurd paper”.
Neuroskeptic created a bogus manuscript with a very convincing title – Mitochondria: Structure, Function and Clinical Relevance – and sent it to nine publishers.
Predatory Journals Hit By ‘Star Wars’ Sting https://t.co/d6V7W0vUU7 Paper about fictional "midichlorians" by "Lucas McGeorge" got published pic.twitter.com/kQFBu2qkzx
— Neuroskeptic (@Neuro_Skeptic) July 22, 2017
“I created a spoof manuscript about ‘midi-chlorians’ – the fictional entities which live inside cells and give Jedi their powers in Star Wars,” they wrote.
“I filled it with other references to the galaxy far, far away, and submitted it to nine journals under the names of Dr Lucas McGeorge and Dr Annette Kin.”
The name of the authors are thinly-veiled references to George Lucas, the original creator of the Star Wars franchise, and Anakin Skywalker, one of the characters in the film instalments.
Neuroskeptic wrote that three peer-reviewed journals fell for the so-called sting – the International Journal of Molecular Biology: Open Access (MedCrave), Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (Austin) and American Research Journal of Biosciences (ARJ).
They claimed a fourth journal – The American Journal of Medical and Biological Research (SciEP) – requested a $360 (£276) fee to publish the paper, which wasn’t paid.
All the four journals did not immediately respond to request for comment, although MedCrave and Austin have removed the manuscript from their sites on Monday.
The paper also included a passage lifted from Star Wars Episode III, in which the villain Emperor Palpatine tells Anakin about Darth Plagueis – a dark lord who gained the power to bring people back from the dead.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? Three 'medical journals' have… they published it https://t.co/LN3Bpdptbt pic.twitter.com/Q5Ccx3tZz7
— Neuroskeptic (@Neuro_Skeptic) July 22, 2017
Neuroskeptic said the paper “should have rejected within about 5 minutes – or 2 minutes if the reviewer was familiar with Star Wars”.
“So does this sting prove that scientific publishing is hopelessly broken?” they continued.
“No, not really. It’s just a reminder that at some ‘peer reviewed’ journals, there really is no meaningful peer review at all. Which we already knew, not least from previous stings, but it bears repeating.
“All I did, as Lucas McGeorge, was test the quality of the products being advertised.”
Meanwhile, the paper did get some amusing responses from the scientific community and the general public on Twitter:
I was asked to review this article, but declined after I read the abstract. I sent the editor a warning note. Had a good laugh.
— Elaine Sia (@easia6) July 22, 2017
— Jens Wiechers (@jwiechers) July 22, 2017
"Dr. Anna Kinsky-Walker" would also be a great pseudonym.
— David K. March (@dkmnow) July 22, 2017
LMAO "This is the case in Yoda’s ataxia, hereditaryspastic paraplegia, and Wookie’s disease". Didn't ever have so much fun reading a paper
— Bas Neggers (@basneggers) July 23, 2017