[tom_]

But they don't say, so how can we tell? I'm not going to be vague with my comment: best thing to do in this sort of case is not to engage.

[sgt101]

The person says some of what I think much better than me:

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2025/02/17/do...

I am afraid that there is massive and systematic and harmful fraud in research: https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabricatio... as only one example. There are many many others. Very little work in entire fields is actually valid.

I think that the way that authorship is currently practiced has a lot to do with this fraud. Academics with ethics and goodwill can no longer effectively police the system. A large number of academics do not even want the system to be policed.