The journal Nature has won a libel case brought against it by Mohamed El Naschie, a theoretical physicist.
In 2008, , which at the time was edited by El Naschie and published many of his own papers. El Naschie sued Schiermeier and Nature Publishing Group for damaging his reputation, representing himself in court.
Today in Bristol, UK, Judge Victoria Sharp dismissed the claim, calling Schiermeier鈥檚 article 鈥渢he product of responsible journalism鈥� and 鈥渁 public interest story, par excellence鈥� . She agreed that although El Naschie鈥檚 papers had been informally discussed with his colleagues before their publication, they were not subject to 鈥渁ny proper peer review at all鈥� and 鈥渨ould not have been published by any reputable peer reviewed journal鈥�.
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Sharp also found 鈥渞easonable and serious grounds鈥� for suspecting that El Naschie used a range of false names to defend his editorial practice in communications with Nature, calling this the most 鈥渃urious鈥� and 鈥渂izarre鈥� aspect of the case. 鈥淚t is apparent that [El Naschie] had little if any interest in the norms of scientific publishing or the ethical considerations which underpinned them,鈥� she said.
