[dlan1000]

What I found more interesting than Pachter's analysis of the specific failings of the Barzel-Barabási paper is the more general implications for our scientific process. I have two parallel trains of thought:

1) We all know that we have scientific "celebrities" and that their work is often over-represented in high-quality journals (while dissenting viewpoints are often suppressed). There is nothing wrong with critizing the work of the celebrity du jour (or in this case, maybe, du décennie), but framing is everything and you will find more success in your scientific career with constructive and respectful criticism without resorting to ad hominem attacks such as "the emperor has no clothes". No one benefits from a bloody cage match.

2) Network science (like many interdisciplinary fields) has problems because many of its practitioners lack extensive knowledge of the systems, experimental challenges and core research methodologies of the fields or contexts to which they apply their developments. Success in such interdisciplinary fields is often incentivized and measured in a very narrow way and not associated with the primary goal of science -- useful and meaningful advances in our collective body of knowledge. You want to be at the top of your field, but presumably (or hopefully) you have more noble aspirations -- you want your work to have real meaning. But this lofty goal is challenged by the rapidly growing body of scientific work and the fracturing of science into siloed sub-fields. For example, finding the right set of peer reviewers for an interdisciplinary submission becomes increasingly challenging. Consequently, mistakes will be made, missed in the peer review process, and published. Dissenting opinions and followup work need to be given equal representation.