One thing I found interesting in "State of Fear" is Crichton's reference to studies where, in some kind of blind test, the scientists got the results that matched their pre-conceived notion. The problem with Crichton's use of footnotes of real papers is it would take a year to read a lot of these, so you can't tell how out of context they are. But, I took that and the AAPG stuff as a warning that you have to be real careful to not let your bias shine through. I'm guessing that the vast majority of AAPG members no longer have the same kind of background that a University researcher would hvae: they spend their time finding oil and gas, or producing it. Some small fraction do research to better find oil and gas, and some of those publish...but many in journals like AAPG Bulletin. I'm guessing, but I think the leadership of AAPG has probably been working in the oil industry for 25 years, since the last big hiring boom of the late 1970s and very early 1980s.
Chris