2009/07/09 by F. Godlee · 1 citation
Health Professions · #Computer science #Data science #Health and Conflict Studies #Law #Political science #World Wide Web
paper · doi:10.1136/bmj.b2783
openalex publication_date 2009/07/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
I hope all readers of the BMJ are signed up to organised scepticism. It’s not a blog, but it could be. It’s one of the four principles of good science as articulated by Robert Merton nearly 70 years ago. The other three—communalism, universalism, and disinterestedness—are no less important, but I had to turn to Wikipedia to remind me what they were. Merton defined organised scepticism as the requirement that scientific claims be exposed to critical scrutiny before they are accepted. This wasn’t a new idea. Tony Delamothe reminds us (doi:10.1136/bmj.b2771) that the motto of the Royal Society translates as “Take …