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 <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] FW: pdb-l: Retraction of 12 Structures.... >To: [email protected] > >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 ><[email protected]> 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
