How not to gain credibility

It may come as a surprise, but when would-be suppliers send me information about a particular ingredient, I actually comply with our regulatory requirements and check up on it. Especially when, to the best of my knowledge, no peer reviewed evidence exists for the use you're suggesting.

So if you send me abstracts for studies in a journal I'm not familiar with, I'll look it up. And I'll notice that it doesn't have a print presence - it exists purely online. And that it isn't peer reviewed, it's 'refereed'. And that its articles don't seem to be listed on Medline.

Then I'll look a little closer, and find that all the articles I've been sent were written by someone who happens to be the 'Executive editor' of the journal. And that despite all the board being members of various universities, the positions they hold aren't listed anywhere (one of my co-workers suggests they may be the cleaners).

I'll also look at the editor's credentials, and find out that they actually have a very senior position in the company that's trying to sell me the ingredient in question, and that the website for the product lists testimonials from Australians using the product, despite neither its only ingredient nor the product itself being legal in Australia. And that the one piece of research listed apart from your own doesn't exist.

Then I'll see that of the 'over 300' technical and research papers the editor is supposed to have written, none of them have been listed on Medline. And that not only are they no longer with the university they claim to work for, they never held the position they claimed.

And my company won't be using your product.

Names omitted to protect my job; all details correct.