Originally posted by Clearskies
Or it's just wrong.
What's wrong? Are we still shuffling the goalposts? We appear to have moved to a different field now. When you're ready with the Mein Kampf stuff go
for it, I'm waiting eagerly. You must have had some reason to post such claims, unless you extracted them from ya anus.
Discrediting Ben Stein;
Dr. Sternberg's case:
Dr. Roy McDiarmid, the President of the BSW and a scientist at the Smithsonian, admitted that there was no wrongdoing regarding the peer-review
process of Meyer’s paper:
"I have seen the review file and comments from 3 reviewers on the Meyer paper. All three with some differences among the comments recommended or
suggested publication. I was surprised but concluded that there was not inappropriate behavior vs a vis [sic] the review process." (See Report,
e-mail from Roy McDiarmid, “Re: Request for information,” January 28, 2005, 2:25 PM to Hans Sues, emphasis added.)
Dr Sternberg handled what he knew would be a contentious article in an inappropriate fashion. Firstly, it was from a friend of his (he and Meyer
discussed publishing the article at an ID conference), in such situations he is not the best person to oversee a review. Indeed, he never even
mentioned it to any of the associate editors. Secondly, the reason it is not the best approach is because it is very likely he also sent to be
reviewed by people he knew would be sympathetic to such ideas, like he. And lo and behold, 3 reviews come back all positive. Next, the article wasn't
even within the area that the journal publishes. It would be like publishing a paper on social psychology in one on educational psychology. The
article was not even formatted in the society's format, might seem a minor quibble, but shows it was shoddily edited - and helped keep the article
below the radar. Finally, although he claims he was the most qualified editor to oversee the review, he clearly wasn't. And he does all this as he
was speeding towards the exit.
He should have sent it on to an associate editor. Indeed, that would be the norm in such circumstances (a very contentious manuscript, in an area
where he has clear sympathies, outside the realm of the journal, and from one of his buddies). It did get reviewed, he sent it to some people with
PhDs, and they reviewed it. But the review process was not normal. Indeed, it wasn't the first time he oversaw a shoddy review of a substandard
manuscript. Peer review isn't meant to be a process of sending an article to your sympathetic friends, it is a quality control process. And the
statement from the society outlines that they believe the process was inappropriately handled.
"The paper by Stephen C. Meyer in the Proceedings ("The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories," vol. 117, no. 2,
pp. 213-239) represents a significant departure from the nearly purely taxonomic content for which this journal has been known throughout its 124-year
history. It was published without the prior knowledge of the Council, which includes officers, elected councilors, and past presidents, or the
associate editors. We have met and determined that all of us would have deemed this paper inappropriate for the pages of the Proceedings.
www.aaas.org...
Lets have the
full quote, because the one you have left an important part out:
have seen the review file and comments from 3 reviewers on the Meyer paper. All three with some differences among the comments recommended or
suggested,publication. I was surprised but concluded that there was not inappropriate behavior vs a vis the review process. Whether one would
consider the reviews appropriate is another issue and I would be pleased to share my views on that with you if you so desire.
I know how I read that.
I don't care about the congressional review. It was a hack job by two republican creationist dolts.
Next Shermer quotes Eugenie Scott claiming that Gonzalez “didn't have very many graduate students, and those he had never completed their
degrees.” First, this is a blatant falsehood, first promulgated by anti-ID groups in Iowa. As I explained to Iowa Citizens for Science when they
made the same claim: “Again, that statement is completely false. The truth is that in 2001, soon before Gonzalez left the University of Washington
(UW) [to] join the faculty at ISU, he served as the primary advisor to a UW doctoral student in astronomy, Chris Laws. Gonzalez served as Laws’
primary scientific advisor over the course of Laws’ entire doctoral thesis, and Laws successfully graduated from UW with a Ph.D. in astronomy in
December, 2004.
Yes, I mentioned that he had
one PhD student complete, he was from his previous institution - he had none at Iowa. That's poor. He also
attracted funding of an overwhelming $22,000, whilst the average in the department was $1,300,000. And he published little independent research whilst
there. He would have been a waste of space in such a good department.
They had every right to refuse him a job for life in a respectable research department. Nothing to do with his creationist fantasies. There's a few
people with sympathies for the anthropic principle in cosmology, however, they are also productive scientists. Which Gonzalez wasn't.
(Author's quote) "Dr. Gonzalez has over 350% more peer-reviewed science articles than what his department ordinarily requires for indicating
the type of reputation that demonstrates research excellence."
And they were all associated with his former PIs. I know you don't have even the slightest clue about the mechanisms of science, but the department
was looking for the ability for
independent research. Hiding behind your old PI's skirts don't count.
Under normal circumstances, Mr. Gonzalez's publication record would be stellar and would warrant his earning tenure at most universities,
according to Mr. Hirsch. But Mr. Gonzalez completed the best scholarship, as judged by his peers, while doing postdoctoral work at the University of
Texas at Austin and at the University of Washington, where he received his Ph.D. His record has trailed off since then.
"It looks like it slowed down considerably," said Mr. Hirsch, stressing that he has not studied Mr. Gonzalez's work in detail and is not an expert
on his tenure case. "It's not clear that he started new things, or anything on his own, in the period he was an assistant professor at Iowa
State."
That pattern may have hurt his case. "Tenure review only deals with his work since he came to Iowa State," said John McCarroll, a spokesman for the
university.
scienceblogs.com...
So, there you go. He did nothing of note at Iowa, and didn't deserve tenure. Almost as pathetic a martyr as Sternberg.
[edit on 16-2-2009 by melatonin]