Junk Science
Junk science is spurious or fraudulent scientific data, research, or analysis. The concept is often invoked in political and legal contexts where facts and scientific results have a great amount of weight in making a determination. It usually conveys a pejorative connotation that the research has been untowardly driven by political, ideological, financial, or otherwise unscientific motives.
The concept was popularized in the 1990s in relation to expert testimony in civil litigation. More recently, invoking the concept has been a tactic to criticize research on the harmful environmental or public health effects of corporate activities, and occasionally in response to such criticism. Author Dan Agin in his book Junk Science harshly criticized those who deny the basic premise of global warming.
In some contexts, junk science is counterposed to the "sound science" or "solid science" that favors one's own point of view. There has been a recent resurgence in Flat-Earth junk science, whereby an individual will use confirmation bias and run tests with pre-determined results to "prove" a particular point (though it is often discredited as being scientifically incorrect). Junk science has been criticized for undermining public trust in real science.: 110–111 Junk science is not the same as pseudoscience.
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