Dear Jacob,

With all due respect, you have left out a key component to successful
data fabrication in the modern age: software.  It is quite obtuse not
to have allocated at least one day of the workshop for practical
applications of Photoshop to diffraction image generation and at least
a passing coverage of whether or not Adobe Lightroom and
crystallographic presets therein will be sufficiently capable of
muddling the RCSB staff analysis of data feasibility checking.

I would very much like to see Gerard Bricogne present a keynote
lecture entitled something like, "The R-Fake Parameter: A Maximum
Likelihood Modulus to Define a Minimum Acceptable Data Drift
Coefficient for Use in the Fabrication of Credibly Artificial
Diffraction Data."

I also believe that we are perhaps full of hubris as a
crystallographic community, because an entire field of faked
structural data has existed long before crystallographers even
considered manufacturing their data.  Specifically,  the molecular
modeling community has already surpassed us in their thinking on the
subject.  While we idly discuss how to properly generate false data,
they have had the foresight to abandon ALL data...and even the
starting coordinates in crystal structures - be they real or
fictitious - and publish volumes of papers entirely unencumbered by
reality or plausibility.  My hat is off to them.

Best regards,
Jim

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Jacob Keller
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear CCP4BB,
>
> due to increasing demand, it seems we should put together a workshop on data
> fabrication, covering the various important topics (chaired by JHo):
>
> --Images: the future of fabrication? How long can we rely on database
> Luddism?
> --Ways out: how to leave a trail of "accidental" data mix-ups
> --Publish large or small? Cost-benefit analyses of impact factor vs. risk of
> being discovered
> --Pushing the envelope: how significant is two [sic] significant
> --Crossing discipline boundaries: are data fabrication procedures universal?
> --Build a better "hofkristallrat"-trap: utilization of rhetorical bombast
> and indignation in reply letters
>
> --Break-out support-session with survivors: comforting words on careers
> after the fall
>
> --Session on the inextricably-related topic of grammatical pedantry, to be
> followed by a soccer (football?) match Greeks Vs. Latins
>
> Ample funding will be available from big pharma and other industry sectors
>
> Please submit further topics to the CCP4BB list
>
> JPK
>
> ps I can't believe no one mentioned the loathsome Latino-Greek "multimer" in
> the recent curmudgeonry postings.
>
>
> *******************************************
> Jacob Pearson Keller
> Northwestern University
> Medical Scientist Training Program
> email: [log in to unmask]
> *******************************************

--

James Kiefer, Ph.D.
Structural Biology
Genentech, Inc.
1 DNA Way,  Mailstop 27
South San Francisco, CA 94080-4990