Belkheiri, Nadji (2026) Institutional Selectivity in Science: A Model of Differential Epistemic Validation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Why do methodological standards appear to be applied with starkly uneven rigour across different research contexts within the same scientific institutions? This article proposes a model of institutional selectivity anchored in two primary mechanisms: tightening, where standards are raised to exclude a disfavoured claim, and suspension, where they are wholly suspended to fabricate discourse serving extra-scientific ends. A third variant relaxation, in which standards are lowered to accommodate favoured claims is identified to complete the model. Built through a comparison of two boundary cases (the Linus Pauling vitamin C controversy and colonial anthropology in Algeria) and illustrated with a third (the DES drug), the model indicates how methodological standards function as flexible resources modulated by power, interest, and network position. The model is further extended to a fourth, contemporary case the metabolic perspective on chronic disease (Lufkin & Lisec, 2024) whose heterogeneous truth claims command varying degrees of evidential support, and whose differential institutional treatment illustrates the tightening, relaxation, and suspension mechanisms in ongoing real-time scientific controversy. Drawing on Foucault, Bourdieu, Latour, and the symmetry principle, the article engages openly with theoretical tensions and stratifies its own claims into factual, correlational, and interpretive levels, offering a portable conceptual instrument that avoids both the idolatry and the wholesale dismissal of science.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Belkheiri, Nadji belkheirinadji@yahoo.fr 0000-0002-5499-6216
Keywords:	Linus Pauling, Vitamin C and Cancer, Colonial Anthropology, Algeria, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour, Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, Pharmaceutical Industry, Scientific Racism, Actor-Network Theory, Interpretive Flexibility, chronic disease, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, agnotology, lifestyle medicine, fasting, autophagy.
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Anthropology General Issues > Causation General Issues > Ethical Issues Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Models and Idealization General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Science and Policy General Issues > Science vs. Pseudoscience General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science Specific Sciences > Sociology General Issues > Values In Science
Depositing User:	Dr. Nadji Belkheiri
Date Deposited:	07 May 2026 11:00
Last Modified:	07 May 2026 11:00
Item ID:	29515
DOI or Unique Handle:	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20027974
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Anthropology General Issues > Causation General Issues > Ethical Issues Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Models and Idealization General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Science and Policy General Issues > Science vs. Pseudoscience General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science Specific Sciences > Sociology General Issues > Values In Science
Date:	6 May 2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29515

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