Citing and Persuading: The Use of References in Phenylpropanolamine Adverse Reaction Reports

Abstract

Scientific reports have both informational and rhetorical goals, where the latter are included to persuade the reader of the validity of the former. This is bias which may be unavoidable but must be controlled. Usually the control of bias is effected in the idealized report format by the discussion section wherein critical arguments for and against the hypothesis are enumerated. The medical-scientific report, however, is written as if the experiment had been conceived and performed in an intellectual vacuum. A case in point is the PPA-ADR corpus. Through frequent reference to questionable studies and selectivity of references, the literature perpetuates the authors' biases. The reasons for such skewed presentations are many, including identification of PPA with amphetamine, inclusion of PPA in Simulated Controlled Substances, and a cultural bias against anorexiants in general. The implication is that in order to maintain proper controls in scientific reporting, care must be taken to review all the pertinent studies whether they support the author's own hypothesis or not.