http://www.emorywheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/10/25/3db9bc0a08df2
I gotta wonder what the Bancroft Prize idiots are gonna do...
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Bellesiles resigns as fraud investigation ends
External panel asserts guilt in July; main report released today
October 25, 2002
Professor of History Michael Bellesiles announced his resignation from the University Friday, bringing an eight-month investigation into his research to an end.
Bellesiles was under fire by fellow academics for alleged fraud in research conducted for his 2000 book Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture.
Bellesiles wrote in a statement Friday he could not continue his teaching commitments given the controversy surrounding him and his book.
"I will continue to research and report on the probate materials while also working on my next book, but cannot continue to teach in what I feel is a hostile environment," Bellesiles wrote.
In a University statement, Interim Dean of the College Robert Paul said he accepted Bellesiles' resignation, effective Dec. 31. The announcement was released along with the long-awaited results of an Investigative Committee's inquiry into allegations of scholarly fraud against Bellesiles.
The Committee, headed by Stanley Katz, a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University (N.J.), concluded that Bellesiles was guilty of both substandard research methodology and of willfully misrepresenting specific evidence in Arming America.
The scope of the Committee was limited to five questions that revolved around probate records in Vermont, Rhode Island and San Francisco, as well as one particular table of data. Finally, the Committee was asked if Bellesiles committed "other serious deviations "from accepted practices in carrying out or reporting results from research.'"
Bellesiles disputed the Committee's findings in his statement, claiming he has followed all pertinent scholarly guidelines and corrected all errors of fact known to him.
"I have never fabricated evidence of any kind nor knowingly evaded my responsibilities as a scholar," he wrote.
The Committee published its findings July 10, but the University withheld the report pending an appeal Bellesiles filed in September.
The University took the unusual step of releasing the results of the Committee's report, an action Paul said was necessitated by the "intense scholarly interest" in the matter. Not released, however, were the supporting documents in the case.
Paul said in the University's statement the Committee's report was "authoritative" and upheld stringent scholarly requirements in conducting such academic investigations. The case, Paul said, was concluded.
Arming America, which addresses the history of gun culture in America, posited that guns were not nearly as prevalent throughout American history than previously thought. Praised for its innovative use of probate materials as evidence, the book was awarded Columbia University's (N.Y.) Bancroft Prize.
Shortly after its release, several researchers, including law professor James Lindgren of Northwestern University (Ill.), alleged Bellesiles falsified evidence to support his thesis. The allegations eventually forced Emory's hand into conducting both an internal inquiry and the appointing of the external Investigative Committee.
Bellesiles, who was suspended with pay this semester, worked all last academic year on a second book on gun culture at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The Newberry funded that research using a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. After Emory began its investigation into Bellesiles' work, the NEH demanded that its name be removed from Bellesiles' research.
The Committee's report can be seen at: http://www.emory.edu/central/NEWS/index.shtml.