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[Phys-l] Suppression of Scientific Work (was Self Censorship in Human Immunology)



Bernard Cleyet (2006), in his Phys-L post of 04 Mar 2006 titled "Off Topic, Maybe not so. Self censorship in Human Immunology," wrote [bracketed by lines "CCCCCCCCC. . . ."; my CAPS:

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I thought not to post until I came across:

"Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the SUPPRESSION OF SCIENTIFIC WORK THAT QUESTIONS BIBLICAL DOGMA."

Full excerpt:

SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL PULLS ARTICLE THAT FINDS PALESTINIANS AND JEWS FROM
SAME GENE POOL

ROBIN MCKIE, OBSERVER, UK - A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal. Academics who have already received copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw them away. Such a drastic act
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,605798,00.html>

bc, who thanks UNDERNEWS MAR 2
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Jack Uretsky responded in a Phys-L post of 4 Mar 2006 20:19:01-0600: "But maybe the logic of the paper was totally flawed? The paper should be discussed on its own merits, and not on the nature of its conclusions."

The paper in question "The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations" [Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2001)] is available online, even despite its attempted suppression by copyright owner "Human Immunology." The abstract reads:

"The genetic profile of Palestinians has, for the first time, been studied by using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variability and haplotypes. The comparison with other Mediterranean populations by using neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses reveal that Palestinians are genetically very close to Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians, and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian-Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. The relatively close relatedness of both Jews and Palestinians to western Mediterranean populations reflects the continuous circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow that have occurred in prehistoric and historic times. This flow overtly contradicts the demic diffusion model of western Mediterranean populations substitution by agriculturalists coming from the Middle East in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition."

As far as I know the scientific integrity of Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2001) has never been challenged. Karen Shashok (2003) gives a well referenced and seemingly balanced account of its attempted suppression, writing:

"When 'Human Immunology' retracted an article from a special issue, it blamed the guest editor . . . [A. Arnaiz-Villena]. . . who was also one of the authors. But journals should not hand responsibility to someone unfamiliar with that journal's editorial procedures without written guidance or oversight. . . . . Scott Plutchak (2002), editor of the 'Journal of the Medical Library Association,' criticised the decision to withdraw the paper as an attempt to tamper with the published record. He pointed out that 'THERE WAS NO CLAIM OF SCIENTIFIC INACCURACY'. . . [My CAPS.]. . . and questioned the copyright holder's right to change the electronic record simply because it is technically possible to erase a document. Erasure meant that many people who wished to study the article were no longer able to obtain it except through the grapevine."

BTW, Cleyet's (2006) "full excerpt" was evidently copied from "Undernews" of 2 March 2006. According to information at its website <http://prorev.com/indexa.htm> "'Undernews' is the online report of the Progressive Review <http://prorev.com/index.htm>.

Had Bernard departed from Phys-L's referenceless protocol [Hake (2002)] and referenced McKie (2001) instead of giving only the uninformative bare URL <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,605798,00.html>, he might have wondered why "Undernews" of 2 March 2006 was quoting an excerpt from a Guardian Observer report of 25 November 2001. According to word I received from Undernews editor Sam Smith "we pulled that article because we had missed the fact that it was out of date."

But "Undernews" need not go to out-of-date articles to find newsworthy evidence for the suppression of scientific work. The Union of Concerned Scientists [UCS (2006)] writes: "An unprecedented level of political interference threatens the integrity of government science. Because policy makers depend on impartial research to make informed decisions, we are mobilizing scientists and citizens alike to push for reforms that will protect our health, safety, and environment."

And for those who doubt the UCS, consider Doonesbury ! <http://www.uclick.com/client/sea/db/> (thanks to Bernard Cleyet).


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES (provided by Ricardo's Ready References Software Inc.)
Arnaiz-Villena A., N. Elaiwa, C. Silvera, A. Rostom, J. Moscoso, E. Gomez-Casado, L. Allende, P. Varela, & J. Martinez-Laso. 2001. "The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations", Human Immunology 62(9): 889-900; online as a 900 kB pdf at <http://tinyurl.com/pkz9w>.

Cleyet, B. 2006. "Off Topic, Maybe not so. Self censorship in Human Immunology," Phys-L post of 04 Mar 2006 00:30:42-0800; online at <https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/archives/2006/03_2006/msg00004.html>.

Hake, R.R. 2002. "Why Not Give References?" Phys-L post of 20 Sep 2002 15:00:25-0700; online at <https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/archives/2002/09_2002/msg00489.html>.

McKie, R. 2001. "Journal axes gene research on Jews and Palestinians," 25 November; online at
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,605798,00.html>.

Plutchak, T.S. 2002. "Sands shifting beneath our feet." Journal of the Medical Library Association 90: 161-3; online at <http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=11999173>.

Shashok, K. 2003. "Pitfalls of editorial miscommunication," British Medical Journal 326:1262-1264, 7 June; online at <http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7401/1262>.

UCS. 2006. Union of Concerned Scientists, "Scientific Integrity" online at <http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/>