Tapsearch Com EditorLevitt: 'I was one of the peer referees'
July 27th 2007 23:42
I've blogged in the past about the Lott-Levitt dispute, and reviewed Lott's Freedomnomics, and now it appears the lawsuit may have reached a settlement.
For those of you not up-to-date, in Freakonomics, scholar Steven Levitt alleged that John Lott's work on guns and crime had not stood up to scholarly scrutiny. (Lott's thesis is that concealed carry reduces crime.) Levitt also sent an e-mail to another economist alleging that Lott had basically bribed an academic journal to run research that supported him without reviewing it first. Lott sued on both counts.
A judge threw out the claim about the Freakonomics passage, but he let the suit continue regarding the e-mail.
From an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Yeah, a doozy indeed!
Lott can still appeal the original decision to throw out the Freakonomics count.
For those of you not up-to-date, in Freakonomics, scholar Steven Levitt alleged that John Lott's work on guns and crime had not stood up to scholarly scrutiny. (Lott's thesis is that concealed carry reduces crime.) Levitt also sent an e-mail to another economist alleging that Lott had basically bribed an academic journal to run research that supported him without reviewing it first. Lott sued on both counts.
A judge threw out the claim about the Freakonomics passage, but he let the suit continue regarding the e-mail.
From an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
John R. Lott Jr.’s defamation lawsuit against his fellow economist Steven D. Levitt has provisionally been settled — but it may yet roar back to life.
In documents filed today in federal court, the two parties outlined a settlement that requires Mr. Levitt...to send a letter of clarification to John B. McCall, a retired economist in Texas.
Mr. Lott’s lawsuit alleges that Mr. Levitt defamed him in a 2005 e-mail message to Mr. McCall...In that message, Mr. Levitt criticized Mr. Lott’s work as guest editor of a special 2001 issue of The Journal of Law and Economics that stemmed from a conference on gun issues held in 1999.
The letter of clarification, which was included in today’s filing, offers a doozy of a concession. In his 2005 message, Mr. Levitt told Mr. McCall that “it was not a peer-refereed edition of the Journal.” But in his letter of clarification, Mr. Levitt writes: “I acknowledge that the articles that were published in the conference issue were reviewed by referees engaged by the editors of the JLE. In fact, I was one of the peer referees.”
In documents filed today in federal court, the two parties outlined a settlement that requires Mr. Levitt...to send a letter of clarification to John B. McCall, a retired economist in Texas.
Mr. Lott’s lawsuit alleges that Mr. Levitt defamed him in a 2005 e-mail message to Mr. McCall...In that message, Mr. Levitt criticized Mr. Lott’s work as guest editor of a special 2001 issue of The Journal of Law and Economics that stemmed from a conference on gun issues held in 1999.
The letter of clarification, which was included in today’s filing, offers a doozy of a concession. In his 2005 message, Mr. Levitt told Mr. McCall that “it was not a peer-refereed edition of the Journal.” But in his letter of clarification, Mr. Levitt writes: “I acknowledge that the articles that were published in the conference issue were reviewed by referees engaged by the editors of the JLE. In fact, I was one of the peer referees.”
Yeah, a doozy indeed!
Lott can still appeal the original decision to throw out the Freakonomics count.
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