Journals Science and Nature report on lie detector legal action threat
The scientific journals Science and Nature have both recently published articles referring to the controversy around the Israeli company Nemesysco's threat to sue Stockholm University professor Francisco Lacerda and his colleague Anders Eriksson of Gothenburg University. The reason for the threat was that the researchers criticised the technology behind the company's lie detectors in a scientific paper - which has subsequently been withdrawn by the publisher, under pressure from Nemesysco.
Just over a year ago Francisco Lacerda, professor of phonetics at Stockholm University, and Anders Eriksson, professor of phonetics at Göteborg University, published an article in "The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law." The magazine is aimed at voice experts working for the police and security services. The paper, "Charlatantry in Forensic Speech Science", gave an account of the last fifty years of research within the field of lie detector technology. The writers' conclusion is that there is no scientific support to show that lie detectors work.
Article withdrawn by publishers
During the autumn British publisher Equinox, which publishes the magazine, was canvassed by the Israeli company Nemesysco Limited, a manufacturer of lie detectors. The company demanded that the article be revoked – which the publisher decided to do. The online edition of the journal now contains merely an abstract of the article, along with a clarification from the publisher. In a letter to the publisher Nemesysco's lawyers wrote that the authors of the article could be sued for defamation if they wrote on the subject again.
Nemesysco's actions have led to even greater attention for the research of the two Swedish professors – both in Sweden and internationally. The Swedish national daily Dagens Nyheter has written about the threat of legal action against the researchers, as have several foreign newspapers. The issue has also attracted attention in the blogosphere, and in social networking sites like Slashdot [http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/29/2018254].
Articles in Science and Nature
The scientific journals Science and Nature have both published editorial pieces on the debate around the threats against professors Lacerda and Eriksson.
Article in Science: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/210/1 (May require subscription for access to the article)
Article in Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090216/full/news.2009.99.html (May require subscription for access to the article)
Earlier article on this website: www.su.se/english/about/news_and_events/scientists_threatened_with_legal_action
Content owner: External Relations Office
Created:
February 23, 2009
by
Paul Parker
Updated:
February 23, 2009
by
Paul Parker
