These are not the journals you’re looking for.
Obi-Wan Kenobi once observed, “The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded,” and he was proven correct when three ostensibly peer-reviewed medical journals published a spoof Star Wars-themed article.
The author of Discover magazine’s Neuroskeptic blog sent the bogus article to nine publications in an effort to expose so-called predatory journals. Such journals, exploiting academics’ desperate need to publish, charge authors for the privilege (and pay little or no attention to whether the work is credible). Of course, even some academic journals not looking to be paid show few signs of exercising editorial review.
The phony paper was presented as the work of professors “Lucas McGeorge” and “Annette Kin.” It contained a dense mixture of medical jargon copied from Wikipedia, sci-fi pseudoscience, and Star Wars quotations. The paper focused on “midi-chlorians,” fictional organisms George Lucas invented to explain the spiritual powers in the Star Wars universe.
“[W]ithout the midi-chlorians,” the article reads, “life couldn’t exist, and we’d have no knowledge of the force.” Mutations in midi-chlorian DNA could result in such afflictions as the “Kyloren syndrome” or “Lightsaber’s hereditary optic neuropathy,” which “are usually handed down by a force-sensitive woman to her children.” Be careful, or you could end up with “Yoda’s ataxia” or “Wookie’s disease.”
Three journals published the paper, while a fourth accepted it but demanded a cash fee. To be fair, three journals rejected the manuscript. Peer reviewers at another journal, apparently getting the joke, returned the paper with the comment, “The authors have neglected to add the following references: Lucas et al., 1977, Palpatine et al., 1980, and Calrissian et al., 1983.”
Discover’s spoof suggests that a problem with fake news science has.
