[aroberge]

In my experience (in a different field), it is common for researchers to acknowledge the source of their funding. In particular, researchers are keen to acknowledge funding from government grants, as this is perceived to be helpful in applying for future research grants.

I glanced through the paper and I could not find any mention indicating who funded that study.

I'm also very sceptical of single studies that support the status quo for very large industries -- even more so when there is no indication of who funded the study.

[was_a_dev]

From my experience conflict of interests and funding sources is a disclosure enforced by the journal

Being a preprint, this is obviously neither peer reviewed nor vetted by a journal.

In this case, I cannot deduce what journal they plan on submitting to (if they plan to at all)

[cogman10]

Yeah, I don’t know what the solution is, but I’ve certainly noticed a trend in clickbate websites reporting on preprint studies that often don’t pass peer review after the fact.

This is a major issue in scientific reporting and research in general. It’s particularly damaging because of anchoring bias.