Trial By Error: UC Berkeley’s October Crowdfunding Campaign
"When I launched the Trial By Error project in 2015 with
a 15,000-word investigation of the piece of crap known more formally as the PACE trial, I had no idea I was launching anything. I figured it was a one-off. After all, could such a disaster of a study really survive the sort of in-depth scrutiny to which I had just subjected PACE? I assumed a retraction would be forthcoming. (In truth, 15,000 words was not nearly enough to cover all the methodological and ethical flaws that marred this awful trial.)
Boy, was I stupid, or at least unbelievably naïve.
Lancet editor Richard Horton ignored my investigation, ignored the open letters from distinguised experts condemning the trial, ignored the fact that PACE represented a possible case of serious research misconduct, if not worse. Six years later, PACE remains in the literature—a potent symbol of the many failings of the peer-review system that science has long relied on for quality assurance.
Of course, that 2015 examination turned out to be only the beginning of this project. As many know, I have supported this work through donations to UC Berkeley through the university’s crowdfunding platform, which is open to campus projects in April and October.
So here’s the pitch from
this month’s crowdfunding campaign."
https://www.virology.ws/2021/10/07/trial-by-error-uc-berkeleys-october-crowdfunding-campaign/