/oss/taxonomy/term/6984/all en /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking/what-journal-impact-factor-and-isnt <p>You may have heard of the impact factor. It is a number given to an academic journal (think <i>Nature </i>or <i>The New England Journal of Medicine</i>) which is often erroneously used a proxy for how good the papers it publishes really are. If the journal has a high impact factor, it must mean the research you will find within it is solid, goes the sentiment; if the number is low, be skeptical.</p> Fri, 05 Jan 2024 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9772 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking/loopy-science-stressed-rats-and-froot-loops <p>If you are a male rat and have to spend two hours every day in a polypropylene tube in which you cannot move, and want to preserve the integrity of your penis, you better stay away from eating Froot Loops. That would be the takeaway from a study published by Brazilian researchers in the peer-reviewed journal Heliyon. But if you are a man, I think this paper provides no useful information other than insinuating that Froot Loops do not exactly belong in the “health food” category, which would seem to be a self-evident truth.</p><p> </p> Wed, 12 Jul 2023 15:34:35 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9565 at /oss