In searching for the next edge or the magic ingredient, policymakers in sport are increasingly drawn to seemingly uncritical copying from other systems. Some of the constructs seem attractive, holding an apparent validity that promotes their adoption but, on closer scrutiny, can appear to be based more on rhetoric than evidence. In this article we propose the new term of `Scienciness` to describe this apparent but erroneous validity, offering an exemplar of its harmful impact through the import into the United Kingdom of features from apparently successful systems in talent development, namely, the former Eastern Bloc and Australia. This article identifies some characteristics of Scienciness constructs, together with some procedural and systemic recommendations for the avoidance of its worse excesses.
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