The Problem with the Frozen Poop Knife Study
When, some weeks ago, I was first contacted by an online scientific publication asking me to review a submission on the subject of “shit knives”, I initially thought it was a hoax or some kind of practical joke. I had in mind the deliberately nonsensical papers written by Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay that were accepted for publication by academic journals such as Gender, Place and Culture. That so many editors fell for the ruse embarassed academics in a number of disciplines, especially once the scandal broke in the Wall Street Journal in October, 2018.
