Lynn Margulis: revisão por pares ou ciclo de submissão

quarta-feira, janeiro 06, 2010

NOTA INTRODUTÓRIA CAUSTICANTE DESTE BLOGGER:

De vez em quando neste blog eu menciono a questão da revisão por pares [peer-review é mais chique!] como sendo uma coisa boa para a ciência, mas que ultimamente os revisores têm se tornado verdadeiros guardas-cancelas defendendo com unhas e dentes o paradigma, e impedindo a discussão e a publicação de novas ideias e teorias científicas. Lynn Margulis corrobora esta minha denúncia. Mais uma vez este blogger é vindicado por um(a) evolucionista.

Leia o artigo de Mazur e confira a prática abominável da tropa de choque da KGB da Nomenklatura científica.

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Margulis: Peer Review Or "Cycle Of Submission"?

Tuesday, 05 January 2010, 10:03 am
Column: Suzan Mazur
Margulis: Peer Review Or "Cycle Of Submission"?

By Suzan Mazur


LYNN MARGULIS

"Grants are awarded by your colleagues who sit in Research Councils and Foundations. Most of us, in any establishment, tend to be conservative and to follow what is called the paradigm. This creates a cycle of submission. . . . The disregard for science’s ethical principles is widespread." – Antonio Lima-de-Faria, Professor of Molecular Cytogenetics, Emeritus, Lund University

Does a science peer review system based on secret submission policies benefit the American public who fund science? A review by this author of correspondence between the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America – the print weekly and online daily research journal (paid subscription) of the National Academy of Sciences – and the authors of several recent scientific papers, most eventually published by PNAS, reveals a nasty back story about submission procedures that in some cases work against the best interests of the public as well as sound science.

The uproar had to do with three papers submitted to PNAS several months ago by NAS member Lynn Margulis, a recipient of the US Presidential Medal for Science. One of them, "Destruction of spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi round-body propagules (RBs) by the antibiotic Tigecycline", the authors say involves an excellent candidate antibiotic for possible cure of the tick-borne chronic spirochete infection Lyme Disease in the US, recognized as "erythema migrans" in Europe and elsewhere. However, the paper was held up because PNAS said it had issues about the way Margulis chose her reviewers on the first (unrelated) paper she presented, that is, Donald Williamson’s "Caterpillars evolved from onychophorans by hybridogenesis". As a result, all three papers were stuck. The last of the three, also on spirochetes, which Margulis says was properly and favorably reviewed, has not yet been approved for publication as this story goes to press.

Margulis is one of 2,100 US members of the NAS. She does not receive government funding and has further distinguished herself by refusing to take DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) money. Margulis admits she is viewed by some within the NAS as "contentious" but says she "only wants to see that real science, open to those who want to participate, is well done, discussed critically without secrecy and properly communicated".

NAS promotes itself as a private, non-profit organization of distinguished scientists that serves the "general welfare", although it was actually incorporated in1863 by Congress during the Lincoln presidency with a mandate to further the investigation of and report on science and art whenever called upon by any department of government. And in 1884, it was authorized "to receive and hold trust funds for the promotion of science, and for other purposes" (emphasis added). NAS is joined at the hip to the National Research Council, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine – collectively called, the National Academies.

When a reporter for Times Higher Education in London asked PNAS why the Margulis-introduced papers were on hold, she was told: "The submission process is confidential and we cannot comment on any papers currently under consideration." In reality, a paper on advice to the editor by anonymous expert reviewers can be pulled at any point on its way to PNAS publication.

One of the reviewers Margulis selected for the Williamson paper reported receiving an intimidating call from an editor at Nature magazine and commented, "It sounded like he was trying to discredit the work and that I might have been a weak link."
...

Read more here/Leia mais aqui.

Suzan Mazur is the author of Altenberg 16: An Exposé of the Evolution Industry. Her interest in evolution began with a flight from Nairobi into Olduvai Gorge to interview the late paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Because of ideological struggles, the Kenyan-Tanzanian border was closed, and Leakey was the only reason authorities in Dar es Salaam agreed to give landing clearance. The meeting followed discovery by Leakey and her team of the 3.6 million-year-old hominid footprints at Laetoli. Suzan Mazur's reports have since appeared in the Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, Archaeology, Connoisseur, Omni and others, as well as on PBS, CBC and MBC. She has been a guest on McLaughlin, Charlie Rose and various Fox Television News programs. Email: sznmzr @ aol.com