[arkades]

No, if the evidence for the area points to X, the folks claiming a deviation from the general evidenced trend need to provide evidence for that.

[pyuser583]

This paper isn’t making an argument. It’s summarizing specialized research.

A specialist in the area could just say “appeal to authority” and they’d be right. The actual peer reviewed articles and books would require evidence.

But those articles and books wouldn’t be accessible to the average reader.

So the journalist is summarizing those arguments, but in the process reducing them to an appeal to authority - which is completely fine.