The Open Access Movement is Fueling the Emergence of Pseudo-Science Journals

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“Vithoba Dant Manjan gives the best natural care to your teeth because good health means strong and healthy teeth. An Ayurvedic product, this gives you strong teeth and healthy gums” [1].

Ayurvedic medicine (Ayurveda) is a “Traditional Hindu alternative medicine, involving balancing three bodily humours of wind, bile, and phlegm” [2]. In other words, it is medicine based on superstition and not science.

I realize some are applying scientific methods to the study of Ayurveda, but it is still quackery.

One of the motives of the open-access movement is to make scientific research available to everyone, including the lay public. But because the lay public lacks the credentials to distinguish authentic science from pseudo-science, this open-access availability will lead to the ignorant hurting themselves and others.

If my doctor were to read and apply the articles in the journals below, I would dump him and get a new primary care physician. Political correctness prevents many in the West from speaking out against superstition-based pseudo-science for fear they might offend someone.

Selected list of questionable Ayurvedic journals:

1. Ayurvedic Medicine
2. Ayupharm: International Journal of Ayurveda and Allied Sciences
3. Homeopathy & Ayurvedic Medicine Open Access
4. International Ayurvedic Medical Journal
5. International Journal of Advanced Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy
6. International Journal of Ayurveda and Pharma Research
7. International Journal of Ayurvedic and Herbal Medicine
8. International Journal of Research in Ayurveda and Pharmacy (ISSN 2229-3566)
9. International Journal of Research in Ayurveda and Pharmacy (ISSN 2277-4343)
10. Journal of AYUSH:-Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy

I am not the only one to question the authenticity of Ayurvedic medicine. Here is some of what others have said:

“Meditation is also a significant therapy in Ayurveda. But except for the benefits of relaxation, there is no scientific evidence to support any of the many astounding claims made on behalf of Ayurvedic medicine” [3].

“At worst, Ayurveda is a multibillion-dollar business of sham cures based on astrology, gem healing, psychic healing, mantras, and the faulty science of bodily humors, spun through either fraud or naiveté” [4].

“Nevertheless we can be fooled when a set of ideas is presented in a scientific way, even though it does not bear scrutiny. These pseudoscientific theories may be based upon authority rather than empirical observation, … concern the unobservable, … confuse metaphysical with empirical claims (e.g. acupuncture, cellular memory, reiki, therapeutic touch, Ayurvedic medicine), or even maintain views that contradict known scientific laws (e.g. homeopathy)” [5].

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Pseudo-science for sale [6].

Endnotes

[1]. Picture by Wikimedia Commons user Vithobanagpur and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

[2]. Wictionary.

[3]. Carroll, Robert (2003). The skeptic’s dictionary: A collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (p. 47).

[4]. Wanjek, Christopher. (2003). Bad medicine: misconceptions and misuses revealed, from distance healing to vitamin O. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (p. 168).

[5]. Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry. (2013). 3rd ed. David Semple, Roger Smyth (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (p. 20).

[6]. Picture by Ken Wieland and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

आयुर्वॆद = Ayurveda

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