Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a problem with the journalism and politics, it's not really about science. No scientist would trust a result that depends on a single small sample paper. Those are just stepping stones that may justify further research for more robust evidence. This fact is quite clear to scientist and it's why most would discourage the general public (including smart engineers) from reading academic articles. But in general,…
> No scientist would trust a result that depends on a single small sample paper. Unfortunately, they would. There are papers with thousands of citations that don't even have data samples, just models based on assumptions.
Maybe a lot of scientist really liked the proposed 'model' and/or some discussion on the assumptions.
and cited it in their paper proposing some additions or follow on work.
That is also fine.