Editing Pseudoscience (section)

===Use of vague, exaggerated or untestable claims===
* Assertion of scientific claims that are vague rather than precise, and that lack specific measurements.{{sfnp|Gauch|2003|pp=211 ff|loc=(Probability, "Common Blunders")}}
* Assertion of a claim with little or no explanatory power.<ref name="Popper, Karl 1963"/>
* Failure to make use of [[operational definition]]s (i.e., publicly accessible definitions of the variables, terms, or objects of interest so that persons other than the definer can measure or test them independently){{refn|group=Note|'Most terms in theoretical physics, for example, do enjoy at least some distinct connections with observables, but not of the simple sort that would permit operational ''definitions'' in terms of these observables. [..] If a restriction in favor of operational definitions were to be followed, therefore, most of theoretical ''physics'' would have to be dismissed as meaningless pseudoscience!'<ref name="EUf6R">{{cite book|first=Paul Montgomery|last=Churchland|title=Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind|year=1999|publisher=MIT Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_7CBvggqOE4C&q=%22operational+definitions.%22+pseudoscience&pg=PA90|page=90|isbn=978-0-262-53074-3|access-date=7 November 2020|archive-date=16 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716200304/https://books.google.com/books?id=_7CBvggqOE4C&q=%22operational+definitions.%22+pseudoscience&pg=PA90|url-status=live}}</ref>}} (See also: [[Reproducibility]]).
* Failure to make reasonable use of the principle of [[Occam's razor|parsimony]], i.e., failing to seek an explanation that requires the fewest possible additional assumptions when multiple viable explanations are possible (''See: [[Occam's razor]]'').{{sfnp|Gauch|2003|pp=269 ff|loc="Parsimony and Efficiency"}}
* Lack of boundary conditions: Most well-supported scientific theories possess well-articulated limitations under which the predicted phenomena do and do not apply.<ref name="Hines1988"/>
* Lack of effective [[Scientific control|controls]] in experimental design, such as the use of [[placebos]] and [[double-blinding]].
* Lack of understanding of basic and established principles of physics and engineering.<ref name="OsPUp">{{cite web|author=Donald E. Simanek|url=http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/scipseud.htm|title=What is science? What is pseudoscience?|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425202814/http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/scipseud.htm|archive-date=25 April 2009}}</ref>