Climate research paper published under fake names stirs controversy

Washington Post : A paper published in the journal Advances in Space Research has been withdrawn following the revelation that the authors used pseudonyms. Ned Nikolov and Karl Zeller, independent researchers, had developed a mathematical model for calculating a rocky planet’s surface temperature. According to their model, Earth is warming not because of human activities but because of solar radiation and Earth’s atmospheric pressure. However, due to the controversial nature of their assertion and the heated discussions that an earlier paper of theirs had caused, they worried that no journal would publish the study. So they submitted and published their paper under the names Den Volokin and Lark ReLlez, their actual names spelled backward. Although the pair claim they only wanted to avoid the bias inherent in the peer-review system, their use of fake names has been denounced by fellow researchers as being “sneaky.”