The Heisenberg Effect is also known as the Observer Effect. Nick Brown notices that, in academic circles, an Expression of Concern (EoC) doesn’t seem to mean what it used to mean:
When I first came across the concept, I was told that an EoC was a sort of preliminary step on the way to retraction. The journal acknowledges that it has received information that suggests that an article may not be reliable. This information seems, on the face of it, to be quite convincing. The journal is still investigating exactly what happened, but in the meantime, here is an early warning that people who are thinking of citing this article might want to think twice. We could see it as the equivalent of locking up someone who is accused of a serious crime: They have not yet been found guilty, their detention is only preventive (and often under better conditions than those who have been convicted), but the prima facie case is such that on balance, we probably don’t want to have that person walking around unchecked. …
However, it appears that many journals or editors are using the term “Expression of Concern” to mean something else. This article has had an EoC on it for six years now. The editors of Psychology of Music just issued this EoC, but according to Samuel Mehr they have no plans to escalate to a retraction. The author of that last paper has also had five EoCs in place at another journal for over a year.
This type of EoC basically comes down to the following statement from the editors: “We have good reason to believe that this article is garbage, and you should not trust it. But we’re not going to do anything about it that might hurt our impact factor, or embarrass us by getting us into Retraction Watch.” It’s like a restaurant menu with a small sticker saying “Pssst: The fish is terrible, please don’t order it”. (Plus, the sticker is permanent. It’s inside the laminated cover of the menu.)
[Bold mine.]
And where did I find this? In Retraction Watch, of course, in their weekly roundup.
Who watches the watchers? The answer would seem to be The Watched.
