The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science

Tuesday, 21 May 2013, 10:44 am Article: Claire Robinson and Jonathan Latham The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science by Claire Robinson and Jonathan Latham, PhD May 20, 2013 Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, has that instead of scientific peer review, its rival The Lancet had a system of throwing a pile of papers down the stairs and publishing those that reached the bottom. On another occasion, Smith was challenged to publish an issue of the BMJ exclusively comprising papers that had failed peer review and see if anybody noticed. He replied, “How do you know I haven’t already done it?” As Smith’s stories show, journal editors have a lot of power in...