In clinical trials, it’s been alleged that pharmaceutical companies and other drug researchers use tactical salami-slicing to take advantage of the fact that readers aren’t paying full attention to every publication. Split up your study into several publications and you’ll give the impression that there’s stronger support for the efficacy of your drug than if there were just one or two papers published on it. It’s a devious, but probably effective, tactic: busy doctors who see that there are six papers claiming support for one drug and only one paper for another might be more likely to
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