He cited flaws in the design of the study that render any conclusions meaningless and asked whether the study passed peer review due to incompetence of the reviewersandeditors or due to conflicts-of-interest among the former.
"The fact that these scientifically sloppy papers continue to be published means that the authors, reviewersandeditors cannot comprehend the statistics, that they have not read the paper carefully, or both, " said Prof.
But although such claims are frightening, and the more so the more distant the memory of the disease, they should be subjected to the same rigorous scrutiny as any other apparent scientific discovery especially by the reviewersandeditors of influential journals.
Because under the US Freedom of Information legislation the UN has released on the Web the comments of reviewers who assessed the drafts of the WG I report and the IPCC editors' responses.