In “Efficient Per Query Information Extraction from a Hamming Oracle” Winston Ewert, George Montañez, William A. Dembski, Robert J. Marks II do not cite the sources of the algorithms they analyze. Yet Dembski trumpeted at Uncommon Descent, “New Peer-Reviewed ID Paper — Deconstructing the Dawkins WEASEL.”
The algorithms (A) and (B) are implemented, respectively, by the programs WEASEL1 and WEASEL2 that Dembski said were supplied to him by the pseudonymous “Oxfordensis.” Dembski announced, “[W]e shall… henceforward treat the programs below as the originals,” i.e., as those used by Richard Dawkins. Any way you slice it, the programs and the algorithms they implement are due to someone other than Ewert et alia.
If you abstract an algorithm from a program, you are ethically obligated to cite the program, just as you are ethically obligated to cite a book from which you get an idea, even if you do not copy words from the book. Algorithms are intellectual property, and are in fact patentable.
Has Dembski not tagged himself and his colleagues as plagiarists?
Showing posts with label scholarly misconduct. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scholarly misconduct. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
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