Yes, as much as I like to pick on the tabloids and their
somewhat iffy quality control, it looks like this guy got away
with faking structures for 10 years UNTIL he published in
Nature. Even Acta Cryst has egg on its face.
So the bottom line is that sunlight is indeed the best
disinfectant, and Nature is one of the best-lit journals?
Phoebe
---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:36:38 +0100
>From: Ganesh Natrajan <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] FW: pdb-l: Retraction of 12
Structures....
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Hi Fred,
>
>It could also be that the high impact factor of these
journals, and their
>'tabloid' character ensures that they are read by more people
than other
>journals. So any bad data or fraud that gets published in
Nature, Cell or
>Science is more likely to get noticed and talked about, than
something that
>appears in smaller impact journals.
>
>And even some very big names aren't spared, which is a good
thing. This
>one, for example
>
>http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7183/full/nature06819.html
>
>Ganesh
>
>
>On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:48:41 +0100, Vellieux Frederic
><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Like everyone else, I was appalled.
>>
>> My two cents worth: Nature and Science are not scientific
journals in
>> the strict sense of the term. They are more like magazines
(I won't go
>> all the way to say "tabloids"), and as such will do
anything to publish
>> what seems to be hot. And will reject very good scientific
papers. So
>> it's not a surprise that retractions affect magazines such
as Science
>> and Nature.
>>
>> Fred.
>
>--
>What is true for E. coli is also true for an elephant -
Jacques Monod.
Phoebe A. Rice
Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
The University of Chicago
phone 773 834 1723
http://bmb.bsd.uchicago.edu/Faculty_and_Research/01_Faculty/01_Faculty_Alphabetically.php?faculty_id=123
RNA is really nifty
DNA is over fifty
We have put them
both in one book
Please do take a
really good look
http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2008/9780854042722.asp
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