The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Publishes a Junk Pakistani ““Waterpipe””™ Study and another one Citing a Junk Reference

A mediocre Pakistani study was recently published by Ali JAWAID and colleagues : Knowledge, attitudes and practice of university students regarding waterpipe smoking in Pakistan

It uses the functionalist reductionist anti-scientific ““waterpipe””™ nominalist code so anybody can know what kind of publication it is from the beginning.

It is based on a biased wrong and confusing questionnaire in English ! (a result of linguistic imperialism in ““waterpipe””™ research). It is said that it was elaborated with the help of Wasim MAZIAK, the head of the US-Syrian ““waterpipe””™ centre:

"Acknowledgements [:] The authors are grateful for the helpful suggestions of Dr W Mazziak, Syrian Centre for Tobacco Studies, Aleppo, Syria, for the development of the questionnair [...]"

This is blatant scientific misconduct (ignored by the so-called "peer-reviewers" of the journal) as there are actually tools in local languages (Urdu, Punjabi, among others) adapted to this kind of study. No need to go into the biased bibliographical details of this stuff obviously backed by the "expertise" of the anti-tobacco GLOBALINK network.

CONCLUSION: SEND THIS PUBLICATION TO THE BIN OF HISTORICAL GARBAGE. THIS IS THE REWARD OF CENSORSHIP AND PUBLICATION BIAS BY PUPPETS AND PARROTS

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IN THE SAME JOURNAL (International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease), another study (1) cites a bibliographical reference (number 5)(Bertrand DAUTZENBERG, president French OFT and Jean-Yves NAU, journalist with Le Monde newspaper) which is actually PLAGIARIZED MATERIAL (2) !
Too much.

(1) Prignot JJ, Sasco AJ, Poulet E, Gupta PC, Aditama TY. Alternative forms of tobacco use. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2008 Jul;12(7):718-27.

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STOP COMMUNIQUE OCT 7, 2008 (rewritten excerpts):
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease journal (Editor Dr Chan-Yeung) has endorsed serious misquotations and other not less serious errors in the above paper.

VIOLATION OF EDITORIAL ETHICS. [Sweeping] serious errors under the carpet of the research community and the public opinion [is certainly...] not a good response nor is it very ethical. Indeed, it breaches the basic editorial ethics of most biomedical journals of the world, particularly the principles established by COPE and ICMJE, [... that] have been informed of this behaviour [1][2].

ENCOURAGING PLAGIARISM. [How... ]come can a journal ethically approve that one of its articles cite a book (reference number 5) which is actually plagiarized material [3]? And [the authors, particularly the French ones] were perfectly aware of this national scientific scandal in France, indeed…

The authors of this intellectual and scientific piracy have been, recently, severely and publicly criticised by the Ombuds(wo)man of the French national newspaper Le Monde [4]. The Lancet states: “Plagiarism is globally recognised as a serious academic offence”. […] Beyond editorial ethics, lies the horizon of scientific integrity and accountability, particularly against the backdrop of a global epidemic.
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References:

[1] COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, is “a code of conduct for editors of biomedical journals”, “a suggested code of conduct for editors to guide them towards being fair to authors, researchers, and readers”: http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines/code

[2] ICMJE. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication. Updated Oct. 2007: http://www.icmje.org/index.html#correct

[3] Communiqué : Tout ce que vous ne pouviez pas savoir sur le livre de Bertrand DAUTZENBERG et Jean-Yves NAU : « Tout ce que vous ne savez pas sur la chicha » (8 June 2007)
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbz283m_78gkhthv

[4] Véronique Maurus. Le fléau du tabac. Le Monde 2008 (27 Sept)
http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/article/2008/09/27/le-fleau-du-tabac-par-veronique-maurus_1100352_3232.html

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QUOTEWORTHY from the study by Prignot JJ, Sasco AJ, Poulet E, Gupta PC, Aditama TY: :

“Second-hand smoke from waterpipes […] poses a serious risk for non-smokers”

> The authors, pathetically parroting the WHO Erroneous report on ““waterpipe”” tobacco smoking” (itself cited the following erroneous and biased pseudo-scientific "review" :

Maziak W, Ward KD, Afifi Soweid RA, Eissenberg T. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control 2004; 13: 327-333])

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PASSING NOTE: Another junk study comes from the College of Nursing (Wayne State University, Detroit, USA):

Linda WEGLICKI, Thomas TEMPLIN, Virginia Hill RICE, Hikmet JAMIL and Adnan HAMMAD. Comparison of Cigarette and Water-Pipe Smoking by Arab and Non-Arab-American Youth. Am J Prev Med. 2008 Aug 1.

Absolutely incredible (errors, bias, clichés, etc.)! However, don’t forget: the Mother of the long series of pseudo-scientific and often junk studies in ““waterpipe””™ research is the one which gave birth to the erroneous World Health Organisation report :

Maziak W, Ward KD, Afifi Soweid RA, Eissenberg T. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control 2004; 13: 327-333.

[note: republished Oct 10, 2008. Backdate kept]

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