From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2017 11:58:50 -0700

Opinions are already heated over this story of a researcher aggrieved
at a paper rebutting one of his own, both published in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://www.nature.com/news/energy-researcher-sues-the-us-national-academy-of-sciences-for-millions-of-dollars-1.22944

The rebuttal paper ran in a June issue of PNAS and a letter from the
original author appeared in the same issue (online version only).

Original paper:  Jacobson, M. Z., Delucchi, M. A., Cameron, M. A. &
Frew, B. A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 15060–15065 (2015).
Rebuttal:  Clack, C. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 6722–6727 (2017).
Letter from original author:  Jacobson, M. Z., Delucchi, M. A.,
Cameron, M. A. & Frew, B.A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, E5021–E5023
(2017).

On the basis of that story, the aggrieved author is not suing the
authors of the paper to which he objects, but only the publisher.
Whether and when to use the courts to engage in scientific debates or
the handling of those debates is the question that gets the most
attention here.

Jim O'Donnell
Arizona State University