Journal retracts global-warming study

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: UPI

FAIRFAX, Va., May 16 (UPI) -- Accusations of plagiarism have led a scientific journal to retract a study that condemned scientific support for global warming, its editors say.

The journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis published a federally-funded study in 2008 headed by statistician Edward Wegman of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., that suggested climate scientists colluded in their studies and cast doubts on global warming.

CSDA journal editor Stanley Azen of the University of Southern California said the journal's legal team "has decided to retract the study," following complaints of plagiarism, USA Today reported Monday.

Plagiarism experts said both the 2008 study and a 2006 congressional report authored by Wegman student Yasmin Said contained text from Wikipedia articles and textbooks.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/05/16/Journal-retracts-global-warming-study/UPI-79791305563743/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Koch based science takes a bow. Oops, a dive.

A well deserved belly flop.

Now, will George Mason U. show any shred of professional responsibility with respect to one of its tenured professors?
I suspect that ice hockey will become the devil's sport before that happens.

[damntexdem]

2. How pathetic: plagiarized in writing fantasy.

And the defense: "a student who "had basically copied and pasted" from other sources into the congressional report and the same text was used in the journal study." That is an admission of plagiarism.

[aquart]

3. They had to steal a phony report?

Couldn't dummy one up on their own?

[petronius]

4. His excuse is pretty pathetic

"In a March e-mail to the journal, Wegman blamed a student who "had basically copied and pasted" from other sources into the congressional report and the same text was used in the journal study."

If you're publishing a paper under your own name, you're responsible for the content, not some anonymous student. If he's saying that he believed a student did some of the original writing, why isn't that person a co-author? And if his students aren't aware of even the basics of plagiarism, maybe he should spend more time teaching.

Also, if the later paper didn't explicitly state that it was reusing text from the earlier report, that's plagiarism too...

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Viva_La_Revolution.

[iwishiwas]

6. too late. the LIE has gone around the world a zillion times.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Climate deniers (R) lie their asses off all the time

Republicon Family Cesspool Values = lies.

[yellowcanine]

8. This happened at George Mason so I am sure Cuccinelli will be right on it.

Passing Wikipedia off as a "study" sure sounds like fraud to me.

[Javaman]

9. Oh how they try. nt

[Bragi]

10. I so wish this kind of story mattered

Whenever I see an article like this I am saddened to once again have to admit to myself that these stories don't matter, that the dishonest anti-science PR campaign against action on climate change has been a total success, and that people will now continue to believe things that are false no matter what the evidence.

This is why there is no reasonable hope of any action being taken that will avoid the worst effects of climate change, which we know will include famines, wars, migrations, security nightmares, etc. I fear that the only reasonable course of action for intelligent people is to hunker down, await the looming disasters, and prepare to do what we can at the household and community level to survive once it becomes apparent that we have fucked up monumentally and our global goose is indeed cooked.

Since I'm into my sixties, I'll not be experiencing the worst of it. To those of you who will have to suffer, gee, sorry about all that. I wish we'd have tried harder, but the right wing just basically mowed us down on this area of public policy, and we were busy working hard so we could buy crap we didn't need.

Have a nice day.