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Richard M. Sternberg is an American scientist who is best known as the subject of the Sternberg peer review controversy. He was the editor of the scientific journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington who controversially handled the review and editing process of the only article published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal advocating intelligent design. The journal subsequently declared that the paper "does not meet the scientific standards of the Proceedings" and would not have been published had usual editorial practices been followed. Conversely, Sternberg claimed that he followed standard procedure as Managing Editor for publication of the article and consulted with several qualified parties before accepting the paper for publication.

Biography

Sternberg has two PhDs; the first from 1995 in molecular evolution from Florida International University, and a second in systems science from Binghamton University. He did post-doctoral work between 1999 and 2001 at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) at the Smithsonian Institution and in 2004 he was given a 3 year appointment as an unpaid research associate. On 15 November 2006, he received a further three year appointment as an unpaid 'research collaborator' at the NMNH.

Sternberg subscribes to the school of thought of process structuralism.

In 2001, he became managing editor of the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington and joined the board of the International Journal of General Systems. The Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington is a taxonomic journal which usually publishes descriptions of newly-identified species. In the same year, he also joined the editorial board of the Baraminology study group, a young earth creationist "creation science" attempt to identify and classify the created kinds mentioned in scripture. He has stated that he is an outside critic and remained skeptical of their young earth beliefs. Sternberg serves as a fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (ISCID), an intelligent design group. In 2002, Sternberg presented a lecture on intelligent design at the ISCID's Research And Progress in Intelligent Design (RAPID) conference. He is also a signatory to the Discovery Institute's Scientific Dissent from Darwinism petition.

Peer review controversy

In June 2004, a paper by Stephen C. Meyer advocating intelligent design was published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, a peer reviewed scientific journal edited at the time by Sternberg, fulfilling, in part, a goal of the intelligent design movement since its inception. Meyer serves as the Director of the Center for Science and Culture, part of the Discovery Institute, the hub of the intelligent design movement. According to an article by the Society of Academic Authors, Meyer said the article grew out of a presentation he made at a conference attended by Sternberg, at which they discussed the possibility of a paper for the society's journal.

The issue of the Proceedings in which the Meyer article appears was to be Sternberg's last before stepping down having resigned in October 2003. Sternberg's decision to publish Meyer's paper and the method by which it was done prompted widespread controversy, ultimately resulting in the journal's publisher deeming the paper inappropriate for publication on the grounds that its subject matter represented a significant departure from the journal's normal content and stating that it did not meet the scientific standards of the journal. They stated that Sternberg went outside the usual review procedures to allow Meyer's article to be published, and that the paper was published "without the prior knowledge of the council, which includes officers, elected councilors, and past presidents, or associate editors." The Biological Society of Washington's president, Roy McDiarmid called Sternberg's decision "a really bad judgment call on the editor's part."

Sternberg disputes the publisher's statement and claims that, after the controversy became public, unnamed groups attempted to pressure the NIH to fire him and efforts were made to remove him from his role of research associate at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The result of the latter, he claims, was that "it was made clear to me that my current position at the Smithsonian will not be renewed." Sternberg filed a claim that afterward he was "targeted for retaliation and harassment" for his religious beliefs at the Smithsonian. The claim was rejected in August, 2005 on the grounds that Sternberg was not actually an employee. A report issued by Republican intelligent design advocates Mark Souder and Rick Santorum echoed Sternberg's claims about his treatment at the Smithsonian, but no action has resulted. The report was described by Steve Reuland as containing "extreme dishonesty", for claiming that "the Deputy Secretary ’s statement completely failed to address the central question of whether the harassment and discrimination identified in the OSC report took place", when the "things that the Smithsonian inquired about – Sternberg’s office space, access to collections, status as a Research Associate, etc. – were the very things that the alleged harassment and discrimination consisted of." The Discovery Institute often cites the Souder report as evidence that Sternberg specifically, and design proponents in general, are victims of persecution, and the Sternberg peer review controversy has become one of the examples of alleged discrimination often cited in the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns.

References

1. Richard Sternberg Curriculum vitae (partial)
2. Council Statement
3. Sternberg's Website - Details of publication process
4. Research Associates - '04
5. ^ Appendix to Intolerance and the Politicization of Science at the Smithsonian United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, December 2006.
6. Process structuralism
7. BSG: A Creation Biology Study Group
8. ^ ISCID - Fellows
9. RAPID schedule
10. A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism
11. ["FIVE YEAR OBJECTIVES... 3. One hundred scientific, academic and technical articles by our fellows", Wedge document
12. ^ SOCIETY OF ACADEMIC AUTHORS NEWS ARCHIVE: OCTOBER 2004
13. Council Statement
14. Details of publication process, Richard Sternberg
15. ^ Intolerance and Politicization of Science at the Smithsonian United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, December 2006.
16. Lame Ducks Weigh In Reed A. Cartwright. PandasThumb.org, December 15, 2006
17. ^ The Office of Sternberg Coddling in the Panda's Thumb, December 20 2006

External links

• Sternberg's Website
• Statement from the Council of the Biological Society of Washington
• Editor Explains Reasons for 'Intelligent Design' Article from the Washington Post
• The Branding of a Heretic; Are religious scientists unwelcome at the Smithsonian? from the Opinion Journal
• Comments from Sternberg's Smithsonian supervisor, Jonathan Coddington in response to the Opinion Journal article, from Panda's Thumb
• Censorship in the Scientific community and Richard Sternberg from the Discovery Institute
• Intelligent Design and Peer Review from the American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Intelligent design advocates
• ISCID fellows
• Signatories of "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism"
• Living people