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



Dick, will you for crying out loud, climb off your advocacy horse and give us a simple statement of the facts that a fie-year-old mind like mine can understand. Was a scientifically accurate article pulled from a peer-reviewed journal because it conclusions were politically undesirable?
I think that this question can be accurately answered, yes or no.
Regards,
Jack

On Sun, 5 Mar 2006, Richard Hake wrote:

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:

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

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/>

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