A scientific journal was created with open access to the public. It looked at patterns, and tried to interpret them. Published by Copernicus Publications, it began well, but before the year was out, it had committed the ultimate crime. It had published an article showing patterns that lead to an offering of the opinion that perhaps man made global warming was not verified.
The announcement of its demise is quoted in it's entirety below.
Termination of the journal Pattern Recognition in Physics
Copernicus Publications started publishing the journal
Pattern Recognition in Physics
(PRP) in March 2013. The journal idea was brought to Copernicus'
attention and was taken rather critically in the beginning, since the
designated Editors-in-Chief were mentioned in the context of the debates
of climate skeptics. However, the initiators asserted that the aim of
the journal was to publish articles about patterns recognized in the
full spectrum of physical disciplines rather than to focus on
climate-research-related topics.
Recently, a special issue was compiled entitled "Pattern in solar
variability, their planetary origin and terrestrial impacts". Besides
papers dealing with the observed patterns in the heliosphere, the
special issue editors ultimately submitted their conclusions in which
they “doubt the continued, even accelerated, warming as claimed by the
IPCC project” (Pattern Recogn. Phys., 1, 205–206, 2013).
Copernicus Publications published the work and other special issue
papers to provide the spectrum of the related papers to the scientists
for their individual judgment. Following best practice in scholarly
publishing, published articles cannot be removed afterwards.
In addition, the editors selected the referees on a nepotistic basis,
which we regard as malpractice in scientific publishing and not in
accordance with our publication ethics we expect to be followed by
the editors.
Therefore, we at Copernicus Publications wish to distance ourselves
from the apparent misuse of the originally agreed aims & scope of
the journal as well as the malpractice regarding the review process,
and decided on 17 January 2014 to cease the publication of PRP. Of
course, scientific dispute is controversial and should allow
contradictory opinions which can then be discussed within the
scientific community. However, the recent developments including the
expressed implications (see above) have led us to this drastic
decision.
Interested scientists can reach the online library at:
www.pattern-recogn-phys.net
Martin Rasmussen
January 2014
The italics and underlining are mine.