Climate Denial Study Gets Pulled After Charges of Plagiarism

"Evidence of plagiarism and complaints about the peer-review process have led a statistics journal to retract a federally funded study that condemned scientific support for global warming.

The study, which appeared in 2008 in the journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, was headed by statistician Edward Wegman of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Its analysis was an outgrowth of a controversial congressional report that Wegman headed in 2006. The 'Wegman Report' suggested climate scientists colluded in their studies and questioned whether global warming was real. The report has since become a touchstone among climate change naysayers.

The journal publisher's legal team 'has decided to retract the study,' said CSDA journal editor Stanley Azen of the University of Southern California, following complaints of plagiarism. A November review by three plagiarism experts of the 2006 congressional report for USA TODAY also concluded that portions contained text from Wikipedia and textbooks. The journal study, co-authored by Wegman student Yasmin Said, detailed part of the congressional report's analysis."

Dan Vergano reports for USA TODAY May 15, 2011.

SEE ALSO:

"Another Chink in Climate Skeptics' Armor" (Mother Jones)

"Retracted Climate Critics' Study Panned by Expert" (USA TODAY)