Another set of fake papers takes aim at social science’s nether regions

“DOG parks are Petri dishes for canine ‘rape culture’,” wrote Helen Wilson, of the Portland Ungendering Research Initiative, in her study published in May this year. Her write-up describes how gender interactions in dog parks mirror the interactions and biases of human society. Female dogs, the paper said, are a relatively oppressed class compared with male dogs, and are subjected to threats of canine rape. It argued that the parallels with human society offered insights into how men might be trained out of sexual violence and bigotry. (Literally leashing men might be politically unfeasible, but perhaps metaphorically leashing them would help?)In the eyes of the publishers of , an academic journal, Ms Wilson’s findings were worthy of the highest regard. They included them in a special selection of 12 papers to mark the journal’s 25th anniversary. There was just one small glitch. Ms Wilson, her institution, her study and her findings were all the creative brain-spawn of three writers, philosophers and self-styled “thinkers” hellbent on exposing what they see as a broken branch of sociology.