The Certainty Illusion: What you don’t know and why it matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting 2025 book by Timothy Caulfield on separating nonsense from sense titled The Certainty Illusion: What you don’t know and why it matters. A preview is at Google Books. This book is divided in three parts:

Part I: The Science Illusion

Part II: The Goodness Illusion

Part III: The Opinion Illusion

 

In Part I, in a section on The Predator Problem on page 63 he discusses predatory journals:

 

“Predatory journals profit by charging researchers a fee to publish – which many legitimate publications also do (sometimes the fee is more than $10,000!), especially journals that are open access. But predatory journals have a lax peer-review process or almost none at all. They’ll publish just about anything. Their editorial boards – the entities meant to apply rigorous standards to decide what gets published – are often padded with questionable ‘experts.’ For example, Dr. Olivia Doll sat on the editorial board of seven academic journals. She is, or so it has been claimed, a celebrated authority in ‘avian propinquity to canines in metropolitan suburbs’ and ‘the benefits of abdominal massage for medium-sized canines.’ No surprise, as Dr. Olivia Doll is a Staffordshire terrier named Ollie. Chasing birds and belly rubs are central to her career agenda. Despite these passions, she has found time to review manuscripts for journals like Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine and Psychiatry and Mental Disorders. She did that. Good doggie! And she has published a few articles herself, including co-authoring a piece with Alice Wuenderlandt from Lutenblag University in Molvania…

 

Ollie’s career as an editor was the brainchild of professor Mike Daube, a public health researcher at Curtin University in Australia. He wanted to demonstrate how these journals lacked credibility. Mission accomplished. The credentials of Dr. Olivia Doll, also known as Ollie the dog, were accepted by all these publications, despite the fact that, as Professor Daube has noted, ‘it would take a five-year-old one click to expose this. In fact, one journal told Ollie that they were ‘delighted to have such an eminent person as yourself.’ Woof.”

 

Dr. Doll is discussed by Ryan Cross in a Science article on May 24, 2017 titled Australian dog serves on the editorial boards of seven medical journals and another article by Kelsey Kennedy at Atlas Obscura on May 25, 2017 titled This Dog Sits on Seven Editorial Boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in Part II: The Goodness Illusion, starting on page 101 he discusses The Devious Dozen buzzword terms, which are: Natural, Holistic, Healthy, Organic, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free, Chemical-Free, Toxin-Free, Locally Grown, The Colour Green, Immune-Boosting, and Personalized. Another three honorable mentions: are Low-Fat, Sugar-Free, and Protein.

 

The cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.