Scholarly appearance

Publishers in academic and scientific arenas establish documentary styles to assure consistency and completeness of information they reproduce. Propagandists sometimes mimic the publishing style of academia to make manipulative messages appear to be the product of scholars.

Careful examination of bibliographies will often reveal a propagandist has not reviewed the entire body of literature related to a matter, but rather has relied on a small, sometimes isolated body of publications that sometimes might be the work of the same propagandist or of closely related allies.

Scholarly appearance is a standard trait of much pseudo-science and exploits the power of professionalism and credentialism to lend credibility to otherwise dubious information.

See also: medical paper ghostwriting