Last update: March/April 2013
More recent developments after April 2013: see main page of this web domaine,
http://zfitter.com.
Also for the references to
the new blog "Friends of ZFITTER"
http://friends-of-zfitter.blogspot.com,
the old blog "GfitterPlag"
http://gfitterplag.blogspot.com,
the new, since June 2013, DESY webpage on Gfitter01,
http://fh.desy.de/projekte/gfitter01/
Gfitter01.htm,
a derivative of the software which had been used by Gftter from 2007
to 2011 ("integrating" ZFITTER's Standard Model library). This webpage on Gfitter01 is not covered
by search engines like Google.
Some facts on the ZFITTER - Gfitter negotiations 2011 - 2013
Personal Statement
On 20 March 2013, the employer of the ZFITTER spokesperson performed a disciplinary measure against
him, by issuing a written
notice of warning (Abmahnung).
This disciplinary measure has been performed as part of the negotiations of the ZFITTER and Gfitter collaborations.
The negotiations concern the copyright violations claimed by ZFITTER since March 2011.
If a necessity is seen by the employer, a next step is the dismissal of the ZFITTER spokesperson from the employment.
As a signal of good-will, we slightly edited this webpage, although it is not part of content of the written
notice of warning.
We do so in order to safely ensure that this webpage will not contain any material which might damage the reputation of
the employer, its
employees, and/or its/their cooperation partners.
To damage the reputation of any institution or person was not and is not our intention.
In case you, as a visitor of this webpage, find any need to improve the contents further in this respect, please send an
email to tordriemann@googlemail.com.
Today, after more than two years of negotiations, one may develop the opinion it would have been appropriate to stay
silent.
In this specific case.
Even in view of evident plagiarism.
We did not stay silent, and after careful consultation with relatives, collegues, and friends we come to the conclusion:
"When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie." [Yevgeny Yevtushenko]
Dr. Tord Riemann, ZFITTER spokesperson, April 2013, Königs Wusterhausen
"When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie."
- Yevgeny Yevtushenko
ZFITTER news as of March to April 2013
A service to the community: List of Gfitter publications deserving a revision due to lack of reference to the
"integrated" ZFITTER texts and/or lack of reference to the usage of ZFITTER software "integrated" into Gfitter
software
Here it is, with status of 16 March 2013:
gfitter-publications-to-be-revised.pdf
The list is not yet completed.
A completion is performed trivially by everybody, based on
gfitter-publications.html.
How to treat a situation in academic research, where one party feels not appropriately respected by another one?
There are many answers, in principle.
We understand us as part of academic basic research, where proper citation of the scientific achievements of the others
is mandatary.
This tradition goes back hundreds of years in Europe.
Proper citation is a reasonable demand, because it guaranties the equilibrium of competition and cooperation, two
essential elements of basic, academic research in natural sciences.
Scientific carriers depend on scientific
achievements of the actors in the field, and on their recognition by the scientific community.
The most central factual question is: What is proper citation?
On the background that the non-authorized copy-paste-adaptations by Gfitter authors cannot be denied seriously,
the estimations depend crucially on that.
In the course of the last two years, the conflict got concentrated at a German institution, the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG.
So, the second most central factual question is:
How should a research institution in Germany proceed when there is a suspicion of scientific misconduct?
An answer to the first question may be found in the following findings of a German court, in German language:
VG Freiburg Urteil vom 23.5.2012, 1 K 58/12
Rücknahme der Verleihung des Doktorgrades - hier: Plagiatsvorwürfe
Urteil der 1. Kammer des Verwaltungsgerichts Freiburg vom 23.5.2012 - 1 K 58/12 -
The explicit link:
http://lrbw.juris.de/cgi-bin/laender_rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bw&GerichtAuswahl=VG+
Freiburg&Art=en&Datum
= 2012 - 5&nr=16297&pos=1&anz=4
An answer to the second question may be found in the following findings of the German professor of law,
Klaus Ferdinand Gärditz [Lehrstuhlinhaber für Öffentliches Recht an der Rheinischen
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn],
who estimated the treatment of the accusations against Professor Dr. h.c. mult.
Annette Schavan at Universität Düsseldorf.
The document "GUTACHTLICHE STELLUNGNAHME ZUM VERFAHRENSABLAUF IN DER SACHE BETREFFEND PROFESSOR DR. ANNETTE SCHAVAN"
dated 16.2.2013:
http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/home/fileadmin/redaktion/Oeffentliche_Medien/Presse/Pressemeldungen/Bilder/Gutachten
.pdf
Of course, everything depends on the question whether the community considers scientific text written with latex as
"scientific text" and software in general as "scientific achievement".
ZFITTER news as of 7 March 2013
Today begins the third year of the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations.
Gfitter
7 March 2011: Two years ago, one of the Gfitter authors was confronted with the
observation by ZFITTER authors, that Gfitter authors had integrated scientific results of ZFITTER into Gfitter as if
they were their own invention.
The reply was unexpected and sounded strange:
"I never have seen Gfitter, I never used Gfitter, and I have no responsibility for Gfitter."
Much happened since then, and at the same time not so much.
28 April 2011: Soon later, we could read in a decision of the Board of Directors of DESY:
"Das Direktorium benennt für zukünftige Fragen in der Sache als DESY-interne
Kontaktperson zu Gfitter, Herrn K. Mönig.
In google translator English:
"The Executive Board shall appoint, for future reference in the matter as DESY internal
contact person to Gfitter, Mr K. Mönig."
So, this issue was settled, finally.
The last official words by Gfitter seem to be the following ones:
-
11 March 2011: The official statements by an author of Gfitter to a responsible person,
2011-03-11-author-to-responsible-en.pdf.
German translation on request.
The Gfitter/GSM software is described shortly. The accusations are characterized as not justified.
-
13 April 2011: The official statements by several authors of Gfitter to a responsible
person,
2011-04-13-authors-to-responsible-en.pdf.
German translation on request.
The Gfitter project as a whole is described in detail.
The accusations are characterized as not justified.
-
20 July 2011: So far the last official statement by Gfitter, the Erratum for
EPJC60(2009)543, published as ErratumEPJC602009543.pdf.
A common software, written by ZFITTER and Gfitter authors is announced, which does not exist.
From the point of view of ZFITTER authors, an alternative Erratum would be appropriate:
epjc60-2009-543-proposed-erratum-2.pdf.
ZFITTER
ZFITTER authors look at the facts, and they deviate from the official Gfitter statements.
This webpage contains sufficient original material, so that everybody may come to his/her own estimation. E.g.:
- 10 May 2011:
gfitter-uses-175-functions-of-zfitter.txt
- List of the known 'integrations' from ZFITTER v.6.42 into Gfitter/gsm (on request).
- Since 3 August 2011:
zfitter-code-in-gfitter.html -
Samples of the 'integration' of ZFITTER software in Gfitter/GSM software.
- Since 10 August 2011:
gfitter-publications.html - Informations on publications of
Gfitter where the use of
[next word was misprinted until 24 Oct 2011]
ZFITTER software is not
quoted. Last update 19 September 2012 by adding several items.
- Since 24 October 2011:
zfitter-text-in-gfitter-publications.html
- Samples of [latex source] text, found in the main Gfitter publication and also in a diploma
thesis,
taken from latex source files written by ZFITTER authors.
- Since 28 Oct 2011:
gfitter-gsm-patches.html -
Patches of misprints in Gfitter/GSM arising from the `integrations'.
Facts, ethics, legality, expectations
Our factual findings and opinions were expressed on several occasions in the last two years.
Let us mention:
-
5 November 2012: The one-page-memo
"Memorandum on ZFITTER/Gfitter" by
Prof. A. A. Akhundov, Prof. P. Christova, Dr. S. Riemann, Dr. T. Riemann et al.
With the auxiliary documents
2012-11-04-memo-zfitter-gfitter-backupinfo-v24-
shortened.pdf
and
2012-09-20-Akhundov-to-OmbudsScienceGermany-DESY-DIR.pdf
The one-page-memo expresses in shortest form the opinions and expectations of ZFITTER related to the ZFITTER-Gfitter
negotiations.
It is a respons to the "Arbitration Decision" by the Ombudsman for Science in Germany (see below), and at the same
time a preparatory
material for the "Meeting Zeuthen II", which did not happen (see below).
-
20 November 2012: For "Meeting Zeuthen II", an introductory text was
submitted, a kind of extended one-page-memo,
2012-11-20-intro-Zeuthen-II.pdf
-
6 February 2013: The article "ZFITTER 1985-2013" by A. Akhundov, A. Arbuzov, S. Riemann,
T. Riemann, describing history and features of the ZFITTER project.
Published as hep-ph/1302.1395. Version 2 (6 March 2013),
hep-ph/1302.1395v2,
with minor updates and a changed affiliation.
The underlying contribution "ZFITTER 2012", submitted as PoS(LL2012)036 to the proceedings of the conference "Loops
and Legs 2012" was retracted, following a request of a responsible person.
Why are the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations a hot matter until now?
The situation is uncomfortable for the ZFITTER people for several reasons:
-
7 March 2011:
Gfitter authors do not accept the licence and legal rights of the ZFITTER authors with the ZFITTER project.
Until now.
No explicit, official, written statement ever.
-
28 April 2011: We read in a decision of the Board of Directors of DESY:
"Das Direktorium wird eine juristische Klärung der Fragen zum hier einschlägigen
Urheber- und Lizenzrecht veranlassen. Bis zur Klärung der strittigen Fragen
haben sich alle beteiligten DESY Beschäftigten zur Abwendung von weiterem
Schaden ausserhalb von DESY nicht zur Sache zu äussern. Auf Nachfrage
kann auf die laufende Prüfung hingewiesen werden."
In English:
"The Board will arrange a legal clarification of the relevant issues to the relevant
copyright and licensing rights. Until clarification of the pending issues, all DESY employees being involved have to
stay silent outside DESY on the topics, in order to prevent further damage. On demand, one may refer to the
examination in progress."
It is strictly forbidden to ZFITTER authors with a DESY affiliation to comment the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations.
The decision was
meant to be followed for few weeks. Unfortunately, it is valid until today.
See next item for proof that nothing changed from April 2011 till February 2013.
-
4 February 2013:
DESY directors do not accept the licence and legal rights of the ZFITTER authors with the ZFITTER
project.
Quotation from a letter on behalf of the Board of Directors of DESY to the Work Council of DESY:
"Wir sehen ... seitens DESY die Notwendigkeit, erneut in die inhaltliche juristische Aufarbeitung der
Auseinandersetzung
einsteigen. DESY wird sich im Zuge dessen auf der Grundlage der Prüfungsergebnisse positionieren zu den Fragen der
Urheberrechtsverletzung, des Zitiergebotes und der Einhaltung der Regeln der guten wissenschaftlichen Praxis ..."
In English, approximately:
"We see the need ... by DESY, again to get into the substantive legal processing of the dispute.
DESY will position itself on the
basis of the examination results on the issue of copyright infringement, to the question of the necessity of quotation
and to the
question of compliance with the rules of good scientific practice."
- 19 February 2013: To mention one conflict. The article "ZFITTER 2012" was
commented as follows by a responsible person, with the consequence that it had to be retracted:
"Diese Veröffentlichung muss sich wie jede andere DESY-Veröffentlichung
auf wissenschaftliche Inhalte beschränken. So sind Angriffe auf Projekte von DESY-
Kollegen und Kollaboranten zu unterlassen."
See
pos_ll2012_036-erase.pdf,
the questioned phrases are marked. In English, approximately:
"This publication must be limited to scientific content, like any other publication from DESY.
Thus one has to refrain from attacks on projects by colleagues at DESY and collaborators."
Sanctions are foreseen, of course.
4 February 2013:
Quotation from a letter on behalf of the Board of Directors of DESY to the Work Coucil of DESY:
"DESY wird sich im Zuge dessen auf der Grundlage
der Prüfungsergebnisse positionieren... zu der Frage der Aufrechterhaltung von Anweisungen an Herrn Dr. Riemann
im Rahmen seines Arbeitsverhältnisses zu DESY."
In English, approximately:
"DESY will position itself on the basis of the examination results ... to the question of the retention of instructions
to Mr. Dr. Riemann as part of his employment at DESY."
ZFITTER news as of February 2013
[15 Feb 2013 - 27 Feb 2013 (20:47), under construction yet]
Just released at zfitter.com:
-
gfittergsmMarch2011.tar, unpacked files:
contents of ./gfittergsmMarch2011/
Essential parts of the first version of Gfitter/GSM have been made available here on 24 February 2013, in
http://zfitter.com/gfittergsmMarch2011.tar.
Basically, the cxx files, the LICENCE and a readme are contained in the selection.
The contents of the directory gfittergsmMarch2011 seems to date back to 2008. It is sufficient for an investigation of
the amount of 'integrations' made from ZFITTER into Gfitter/GSM, observed by the ZFITTER team.
The Gfitter/GSM version, which was actually used for a diploma thesis, several articles, many talks and two webpages,
is declared as "not foreseen to become public". This contradicts the licence file, but has relevance for those who
respect "conditions of use".
11 September 2011, Gfitter author:
"Dieser Code wurde nicht fuer die Oeffentlichkeit gemacht, und das haben Sie zu respektieren."
[google translator, improved: "This code has not been done for the public, and you have to respect this."]
The cxx files of the March 2011 version differ from those in gfittergsmMarch2011 by few lines
of code only.
-
gfitter_gsm_21jul2011.tar, contents of tarball:
./gfitter_gsm_21jul2011
and therein of GSM:
./gfitter_gsm_21jul2011_gsm
Essential parts of [typo corr. 27.2.2013:] Gfitter/GSM, as it was made public at the Gfitter webpage in July
2011 [end of typo], have been made available here on 26 February 2013, in
http://zfitter.com/gfitter_gsm_21jul2011.tar.
The readme and some documents quoted therein explain why ZFITTER demands a replacement of the Erratum to
EPJC60(2009)543 and a retraction of arXiv:1107.0975v1, and why the package Gfitter_21jul2011 and its derivatives are
considered by ZFITTER to be illegal.
The re-written Gfitter/GSM package expresses in more than 90 instances that Gfitter/GSM contains 'integrations' from
ZFITTER (one line or several lines of code) - according to statements by its authors from Gfitter: M. Goebel, J.
Haller, A. Hoecker, K. Moenig.
Taking the findings of the ZFITTER authors A. Akhundov, S. Riemann and T. Riemann on non-authorized hidden
copy-paste-adapt actions by Gfitter (on texts and software), plus these statements (on software) ... plus the lack of
any quotation of the "integrations" ...
...
What else do we need as a proof of scientific misconduct by Gfitter?
When we write "scientific misconduct", we are referring to the
DESY GO/BO 2010, the company regulations (BO),
Annexes of BO,
Annex 5: "Rules for ensuring good
scientific practice at DESY and procedures in
case of scientific misconduct"
BO page 118, Rule 1:
"Scientific misconduct:
...
Deviations from the good scientific practices ... must be
considered as a scientific misconduct.
The following is particularly considered as a scientific misconduct:
...
* Misrepresentations in advertising, applications for support, publications etc.;
* Violation of intellectual property by means of
- unauthorised use under presumption of authorship (plagiarism) as well as presumption or
unfounded acceptance of scientific authorship or co-authorship
...
Just retracted ...
... is the text version for the proceedings of "Loops and Legs 2012" of the talk:
A. Akhundov (Baku), A. Arbuzov (Dubna), S. Riemann (DESY), T. Riemann (DESY)
"ZFITTER 2012" (slides)
- With a historical overview and a short description of the new program version ZFITTER v.6.44beta -
The text was accepted for publication as PoS(LL2012)036 in the proceedings of the conference "Loops and Legs 2012".
The employer of two of the authors demanded changes which were not possible after "closing" of the conference on 31
January 2013.
After negotiations of the chair of the guest editors T. Riemann with the Editorial Board of PoS, a retraction by PoS on
22 February 2013 was the only solution of the puzzle.
Here is the retracted text:
LL2012-retracted-by-PoS-Riemann.pdf
Just published:
A. Akhundov (Baku), A. Arbuzov (Dubna), S. Riemann (DESY), T. Riemann (Königs Wusterhausen)
"ZFITTER 1985-2013"
Dedicated to Pena Christova on the occasion of her 70th birthday,
arXiv:1302.1395 (Wed, 6 Feb 2013)
Version2: Wed, 6 Mar 2013, with some improvements in the text, added references, and a changed affiliation.
"ZFITTER 1985-2013" contains a historical overview and introduces the new program version ZFITTER v.6.44beta
(unpublished).
Just decided:
On 9 February 2013, on behalf of the DESY Board of Directors, the following oral announcements were brought to the
knowledge of the ZFITTER spokesperson:
-
The implementation of the
arbitration decision
of the Ombudsman for Science in Germany (dated 3 July 2012), Professor Löwer, has
failed at DESY.
-
The suggestion of the Ombudsman for Science in Germany (22 January 2013) to make the award publicly available will not
be realized by DESY.
-
DESY will perform an internal evaluation (or: investigation?) with the aim of solving the conflict around
ZFITTER and Gfitter.
-
The ZFITTER spokesperson is entitled to make the ZFITTER collaboration familiar with the award of the Ombudsman for
Science in Germany.
Comments.
- Concerning item 1 of the DESY Board of Directors' announcement:
Just to remind us of the nature of the conflict:
In March/April 2011, the ZFITTER authors A. Akhundov, S. Riemann, T. Riemann proved that the Standard Model library of
the C++ package Gfitter, Gfitter/GSM,
contains about 175 formulas taken out of the Fortran package ZFITTER v.6.42 (by emacs).
ZFITTER v.6.42 is available from the CPC software archive at
http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADMJ_v2_0.html.
Legal notice:
The CPC software licence may be consulted here:
http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html.
The conditions of use include the need of proper academic citation when the software ZFITTER is used.
This includes a reference to the following articles, for the use of the software :
D. Bardin et al., Comp. Phys. Commun. 133 (2001) 229-395
and
A. Arbuzov et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 174 (2006) 728-758
The parts of Gfitter/GSM with relevance to the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations are available here:
http://zfitter.com/gfittergsmMarch2011.tar.
Legal notice:
The Gfitter package was downloaded by legal operations on 2 March 2011 from the webaddress
http://atlas-sw.cern.ch/cgi-bin/viewcvs-atlas.cgi/groups/catsusy/Gfitter/gsm/.
It is closed now.
A copy of the webpage may be seen here:
atlas_Index_of_groups_catsusy_Gfitter_gsm.htm.
The licence of Gfitter in March 2011 is reproduced here:
gfitter-license-27-02-2011-search.
htm.
We have to add that, according to the CPC licence statement of ZFITTER, the following two articles have to be quoted
for the use of ZFITTER v.6.42 in the Gfitter project:
D. Bardin et al., Comp. Phys. Commun. 133 (2001) 229-395 and A. Arbuzov et al., Comput. Phys. Commun. 174
(2006) 728-758.
In this respect, the Gfitter licence of March 2011 is not correct. It is part of the systematic conceal of using
ZFITTER by Gfitter.
The article
EPJC60(2009)543v3 (with a deliberately wrong
Erratum EPJC71(2011)1718
(corresponding to hep-ph/0811.0009v4)
and a
diploma thesis (Univ. Hamburg) describe the and rely on the
software, and
contain additionally about 5 pages of text tracing back to texts of ZFITTER authors (also 'integrated' by emacs).
The take-overs are performed by non-authorized hidden copy-paste-adapt. For details see
below.
About 33 Gfitter publications of different importance, published between December 2009 and Spring 2011, support the
impression that Gfitter relies only on the work of its
authors, without a proper reference to the use of the above-mentioned ZFITTER resources.
For details see below.
The responsible authors are Martin Goebel, Professor Dr. Johannes Haller (Univ. Hamburg, Univ. Goettingen, Univ.
Hamburg), Dr. Andreas Hoecker (CERN), Dr. Klaus Moenig (DESY).
The conflict ...
... is described in the
one-page-memo "Memorandum on ZFITTER/Gfitter" by
Prof. A. A. Akhundov, Prof. P. Christova, Dr. S. Riemann, Dr. T. Riemann et al., dated 4 November 2012.
There are two auxiliary documents available (see above):
T. Riemann, "Backup information for `Memorandum on ZFITTER/Gfitter v.2'" and A. Akhundov, "Letter to Ombudsman for
Science in Germany, Prof. W. Loewer, Bonn and to Chairman of the Board of Directors of DESY, Prof. H. Dosch, Hamburg".
ZFITTER expects that the situation gets
- acknowledged
- estimated
- cleaned.
According to
- the internationally accepted ethical rules of academic scientific work
- the recommendations of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft by Bjorn Wiik, DESY et al. of 1998, see
DFG - Recommendations of the Commission on Professional Self Regulation in Science - Proposals for Safeguarding Good
Scientific Practice, January, 1998">
- the "Procedure and company regulations (GO/BO) for Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY", Attachments of the BO,
No. 5 "Rules for ensuring good scientific practice at DESY and procedures in case of scientific misconduct",
see Attachment 5
- the regulations by Springer Verlag,
Policy_on_Publishing_Integrity2010
The one-page-memorandum by ZFITTER (see
below), dated 4 Nov 2012, is actual (per 27 February
2013).
- Concerning item 2 of the DESY Board of Directors' announcement:
The award of the Ombudsman for Science in Germany (dated 3 July 2012), Professor Löwer, may be found here in
English translation:
arbitration decision.
The translation is licenced under the
creative commons licence.
-
Concerning item 3 of the DESY Board of Directors' announcement:
There have been so far four moderations of the ZFITTER-Gfitter conflict at DESY, plus one investigation by the
Editors-in-Chief of "European Physical Journal C" of Springer Verlag.
They all ended without a solution of the conflict, part of them with conclusions:
- The "Buchmüller report"
The ombudspersons at DESY performed an investigation of the ZFITTER/Gfitter conflict from 3 March 2011 till 18 April
2011.
Committee leader Professor W. Buchmüller submitted to the DESY Board of Directors the final report on 18
April
2011 with the results of so-called 'preliminary' investigations and with recommendations.
The report is confidential.
A central statement became later quoted in the Löwer report:
"A diploma thesis derives from ZFITTER in the sense that 8200 lines have been taken over by copying from ZFITTER."
Seemingly, the 'integrations' of text passages in a diploma thesis and an article were not reported.
From the Decision of the DESY Board of Directors (21 April 2011) one may conclude that no serious scientific
misconduct has been reported.
- The "Naumann report"
Nevertheless, a moderation session with representatives from ZFITTER and Gfitter has been organized on behalf of
Professor H. Dosch, spokesperson of the DESY Board of
Directors, on 11 May 2011 in Zeuthen.
In the course, negotiations were undertaken to find an agreement between ZFITTER and Gfitter.
These failed at the end of July 2011 in a desastrous disorder.
Moderator Professor T. Naumann submitted to Professor H. Dosch and to ZFITER and Gfitter the final report on 24 Sep
2011.
The report is signed by Professor T. Naumann and Dr. G. Weiglein (co-moderator, nominated by Gfitter) and approved by
Gfitter.
The report is not signed by Professor S. Moch (co-moderator, nominated by ZFITTER) and not approved by ZFITTER.
The report and the reply by ZFITTER are not confidential.
An Erratum to EPJC60(2009)543 was submitted by Gfitter to EPJC on 20 July 2011 as part of the planned negotiations.
Because the final negotiations failed few days later, the Erratum turned out to be senseless and wrong.
The Erratum is, naturally, authored exclusively by Gfitter, and so only Gfitter carries responsibility for the
submission, and for the need of a replacement.
See for more details in
gfitter_gsm_21jul2011.tar.
- The "Dosch initiative"
The ZFITTER spokesperson proposed on 12 August 2011 to sign a "ZFITTER-Gfitter agreement".
See here:
2011-08-12-draft-agreement
Professor H. Dosch initiated direct negotiations of ZFITTER and Gfitter with the aim to find an
agreement, from 31 August 2011 till 13 October 2011.
An intermediate version of the draft agreement is
2011-09-15-draft-agreement
Finally, the initiative failed.
If there is any final report, it is not known to ZFITTER.
- Springer Publisher: The "Caron reply" and the "Bethke report"
Since 8 April 2011, ZFITTER tried to find contact with Editors-in-Chief of EPJC Professor S. Bethke and
Dr. G. Weiglein
concerning the Gfitter problem.
On 5 September 2011, the editorial office recommended to contact in case these two Editors-in-Chief,
email01-von-epjc-editorialoffice.pdf.
On 12 September 2011, the editorial office explained in short the approach to cases of suspected
misconduct,
email02-von-epjc-editorialoffice.pdf.
Since 20 September 2011, there was an exchange of opinions with Professor S. Bethke, in accordance
with the official
rules
of Springer Verlag.
On 23 September 2011, a first complaint about the so-called 'main paper' of Gfitter, EPJC60(2009)543, was
sent to the
Editor-in-Chief of EPJC, Professor S. Bethke. It consisted of a formal letter and attached documents (about 1 MB).
Available on request.
The complaint was rejected on formal grounds by the publisher, Dr. Caron.
Evidently, it would be difficult to fulfill the conditions formulated by the publisher,
see:
Email Dr.Caron to Dr. Riemann.
On 24 October 2011, another complaint was sent to professor Bethke with additional information.
Available on request.
On 3 November 2011, an intermediate trial was undertaken to fulfil part of the formal conditions
formulated by the
publisher.
Available on request.
In doing so, it became evident that there was absolutely no chance to fulfil the formal
conditions formulated by the publisher.
On 23 December 2011, a second, completely modified complaint of 37 pages was sent to Professor S. Bethke
for EPJC; see
letter-to-springer-editor-2011-12-23. Accompanied by a huge
attachment.
On 26 January 2012, the complaint was rejected and no appeal was allowed. With a reasoning.
See
Letter_Riemann.pdf.
The argument of the 3-pages document is basically that Gfitter quoted correctly.
One comment only:
In EPJC60(2009)543, ZFITTER is mentioned (and quoted) twice: for numerical cross-checks and for a 'procedure'. But,
the ZFITTER software or its 'integrations' or the text integrations from ZFITTER authors' texts are not mentioned at
all.
The Bethke report contradicts not only in general to the citation rules of academic research, but also to the rules of
Springer Verlag for the treatment of scientific misconduct,
Policy_on_Publishing_Integrity2010.
[Added March 2013:]
On 12 February 2012 we indicated to Springer publisher and to Gfitter that, independent of Springer's
decision on EPJC60(2009)543, there is a new Erratum to that article, which contains incorrect information,
letter-to-Springer-Gfitter.pdf
On 15 February 2012, the decision by the Editors-in-Chief was questioned against the legal
department of Springer Verlag,
letter-to-rechtsabteilung.pdf.
On 21 February 2012 the decision got finally confirmed ,
letter-from-rechtsabteilung.pdf.
On 14 September 2012, because the last complaint remained unanswered, we wrote a letter to all the 60
editors of EPJC, which also remained unanswered so far,
email-to-all-epjc-editors.pdf.
4 November 2012: The status is not satisfactory for ZFITTER, and so Springer publisher is mentioned in the
one-page-memo of ZFITTER (with
accompanying documents).
[Added March 2013:]
We refer here also to the recent findings of a German court on proper citations, in German language:
VG Freiburg Urteil vom 23.5.2012, 1 K 58/12
Rücknahme der Verleihung des Doktorgrades - hier: Plagiatsvorwürfe
Urteil der 1. Kammer des Verwaltungsgerichts Freiburg vom 23.5.2012 - 1 K 58/12 -
The explicit link:
http://lrbw.juris.de/cgi-bin/laender_rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bw&GerichtAuswahl=VG+
Freiburg&Art=en&Datum
= 2012 - 5&nr=16297&pos=1&anz=4
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG: The "Löwer report"
On
14 November 2011 the DESY Board of Directors asked the Ombudsman for Science in Germany, Professor
Löwer, to perform an
investigation.
30 November 2011 - The ZFITTER spokesperson asked also for an investigation.
Since 2 February 2012 there is the file number "A-42/2011 - ZFITTER/Gfitter/DESY".
26 June 2012 - A series of meetings
of professor Löwer with T. Riemann (ZFITTER spokesperson), with professor J. Haller and K. Moenig (for Gfitter),
with T. Riemann and K. Moenig happened at DESY.
On 3 July 2012 the arbitration award was submitted by Professor Löwer.
An English translation is Schiedsspruch_prof_loewer-EN-06Jul2012.pdf.
Since July 2012, no visible actions were undertaken to fulfill the award.
On 9 February 2013 DESY announced to ZFITTER that the fulfilment of the Löwer award failed.
We are now awaiting the final statement of Professor Löwer.
There happened an interesting action:
-
The "Retraction of Gfitter's article arXiv:1107.0975v1" ...
... by Springer Verlag.
The article arXiv:1107.0975v1, "Updated Status of the Global Electroweak Fit and Constraints on New Physics" by
Gfitter, M. Baak (CERN) et al., was
- submitted to EPJC on 5 July 2011
- accepted for publication by EPJC on 12 September 2011
but was never printed.
While, we see in the printed article "Updated Status of the Global Electroweak Fit and Constraints on New Physics" by
Gfitter, M. Baak (CERN) et al., as EPJC72(2012)2003:
- Received: 2 January 2012
- Revised: 19 April 2012
- Published online: 17 May 2012
The corresponding preprint is arXiv:1107.0975 [v2] Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:18:50 GMT (888kb).
At first glance and formally the same paper, in fact another article as seen from EPJC.
The only possible conclusion:
EPJC retracted the article "Updated Status ..." after acceptance on 12.9.2011 and printed instead the
article "Updated Status ..." which was submitted on 2.1.2012 and published online on 17 May 2012.
The authors lists of the two articles arXiv:1107.0975v1 and arXiv:1107.0975v2 = EPJC72(2012)2003 differ. This also
proves that they are different articles.
There happened also several non-investigations and non-events around the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations. We like to
mention few of them:
- The ombudsman of CERN ...
... refused to deal with the negotiations due to lack of time and lack of mandate (21 May 2012).
In fact, from
who-can-use-ombuds-services we learn that this is
correct: "All members of personnel have access to the services of the Ombuds. In addition, any other person working at,
or on behalf of, CERN also has access to the Ombuds." And others have no access.
-
The MIN faculty of Hamburg University ...
dealt with the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations, confidentially, and did not observe irregularities (information by Dr. K.
Moenig, 26
June 2012). The faculty refuses from any contact with ZFITTER.
-
Meeting "Zeuthen II" ...
... was agreed upon as an informal, private meeting of J. Bluemlein, K. Moenig,
T. Naumann, T. Riemann at Zeuthen on 20 November 2012, a kind of follow-up of "Zeuthen I" on 11 May 2011 (see above,
the "Naumann report").
The Gfitter representative finally did not come.
Besides the one-page-memo of ZFITTER of 4 November 2012, a
preparatory text with facts and views from the ZFITTER side was prepared for "Zeuthen II",
2012-11-20-intro-Zeuthen-II.pdf.
It was not exchanged with Gfitter, because the corresponding document from Gfitter was not presented to the
organizers.
-
Concerning item 2 of the DESY Board of Directors' announcement:
The arbitration decision by Professor
Löwer has been translated into English and is publicly available from this webpage.
-
Concerning item 3 of the DESY Board of Directors' announcement:
The announced fifth investigation at DESY, the sixth one when the EPJC study is added, certainly will solve the
conflict.
-
Concerning item 4 of the DESY Board of Directors' announcement:
Statement by Professor Löwer, 23 July 2012, to the ZFITTER spokesperson:
"You should inform ZFITTER on the arbitration award."
This has been done that time.
ZFITTER news as of January 2013:
Letter_Riemann.pdf, letter from the Editors-in-Chief of "European
Physics Journal C", dated 26 January 2012, to the ZFITTER spokesperson.
Concern: The article
EPJC60(2009)543 is carefully justified as a correct publication according to the "common sense
approach" to plagiarism. Appeal is not allowed. Confirmation by the Legal Department of Springer
Publisher few days later.
[added Sep 2012]
ZFITTER news as of December 2012:
Talk by T. Riemann at "6th Annual Workshop of the Helmholtz Alliance
'Physics at the Terascale'",
chaired by T. Behnke and C. Zeitnitz, 03 to 05 December 2012 at Hamburg, Germany, in Parallel Session II
"Electroweak and QCD Physics", Conveners: K. Rabbertz, S. Pozzorini, S. Schumann, G. Heinrich, K. Lohwasser,
on "ZFITTER and LHC physics".
The slides at the conference webpage have been 'improved' afterwards by exchanging page 23.
The original page 23 may be found here:
slide 23.
ZFITTER news as of November 2012:
Because
- there is no visible progress in the realization process of the arbitration award on
Gfitter of the Ombudsman for Science in Germany, dated as of 3 July 2012,
- and there is
little overlap between the expectations of the ZFITTER collaboration with the award,
- and there is a grain of imbalance in the sanctions decided so far,
we summarized the ZFITTER expectations in a one-page-memo, dated 4 November 2012:
Memorandum on ZFITTER/Gfitter
[back to 15 December 2013]
authored by Professor A. A. Akhundov, Professor P. Christova, Dr. S. Riemann, Dr. T. Riemann et al.
The two auxiliary documents "Backup information for `Memorandum on ZFITTER/Gfitter'" by T. Riemann
and "Letter to the Ombudsman for Science in Germany and to the Chairman of the Board of Directors"
by A. Akhundov can be made available on request.
Among those who were asked to recognize the points of view of the ZFITTER collaboration are:
- Gfitter collaboration
- Ombudsman for science in Germany
- Chairperson and members of the Directorate
- Chairperson of the administrative council
- President of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
- Scientific Coordinators and Scientific Manager of the "Helmholtz Alliance `Physics at the
Terascale'" [8 Dec 2012]
[15,16,19 Nov 2012]
ZFITTER news as of October 2012:
An institution took a disciplinary measure according to German labor law in the arbitration
procedure Gfitter ZFITTER against the ZFITTER spokesperson on
10 October 2012 based on a decision by its Board of Directors.
Original phrasing in German: "... Beschluss zum Schiedsgerichtsverfahren Gfitter ZFITTER -
Arbeitsrechtliche Massnahmen Tord Riemann".
This is the first and so far only sanction in the ZFITTER-Gfitter negotiations. [15 Nov 2012]
[Added March 2013: On 20 March 2013, another disciplinary measure was taken against the ZFITTER
spokesperson. See above.]
ZFITTER news as of September 2012:
Open Letter to the Editorial Board of "European
Physics Journal C", 14 September 2012
Concern: Again: The Erratum to EPJC60(2009)543 should be retracted because it contains wrong
statement on
ZFITTER/Gfitter software and does not comment the "integrations" of texts authored by
ZFITTER persons into EPJC60(2009)543. Further, EPJC60(2009) and EPJC71(2011)1718 are compared.
[19 Sep 2012]
ZFITTER news as of July 2012
... may be found
here, with an information on the
Arbitration Award (Schiedsspruch) of the
Ombudsman für die Wissenschaft in Deutschland (3 July 2012).
ZFITTER news as of February 2012:
Reply by the ZFITTER spokesperson, dated 2
February 2012, to the letter from the Editors-in-Chief of "European Physics Journal C", dated 26
January 2012
Concern:
The Erratum to EPJC60(2009)543 should be retracted because it contains wrong statement on
ZFITTER/Gfitter software and does not comment the "integrations" of texts authored by
ZFITTER persons into EPJC60(2009)543.
[added Sep 2012]
"ZFITTER - 20 years after"
Tord Riemann, DESY, Zeuthen, Germany
Talk
on the ZFITTER history, held at
LL2012,
Int. Workshop "Loops and Legs in
Quantum Field Theory", 15-20 April 2012, Wernigerode, Germany
ZFITTER
is a Fortran package for the
evaluation of radiative corrections
(quantum corrections), as
predicted in the Standard Model of elementary particles, to a variety of observable quantities,
notably those related to the Z-boson resonance peak studied at LEP, CERN.
It is supported since about 1985.
Authors of
ZFITTER:
A. Akhundov,
A. Arbuzov,
M. Awramik,
D. Bardin,
M. Bilenky,
A. Chizhov,
P. Christova,
M. Czakon,
O. Fedorenko,
A. Freitas,
M. Grünewald,
M. Jack,
L. Kalinovskaya,
A. Olshevsky,
S. Riemann,
T. Riemann,
M. Sachwitz,
A. Sazonov,
Yu. Sedykh,
I. Sheer,
L. Vertogradov,
H. Vogt.
ZFITTER
has been used for
many experimental and phenomenological studies.
The actual version is
ZFITTER v. 6.43 (released 17 June 2008).
ZFITTER authors claim to hold personal copyrights and licence rights.
ZFITTER v.6.44 has been prepared for release.
After clarification of copyright and licence
problems,
a release might become possible.
The creation of ZFITTER would have been impossible without the generous
help of the community and the long-term co-operation with G. Passarino and the TOPAZ0 team (G.P. and
G. Montagna, O. Nicrosini, F. Piccinini, R. Pittau), because the complexity of the standard model's
fortranization deserves more than one independent implementation.
For those who want to know more
about the complexity of the theoretical framework, we recommend the book "The Standard Model in the
Making: Precision Study of the Electroweak Interactions", Oxford University Press, USA (December 9,
1999) by D. Bardin and G. Passarino.
Other helpful documents are e.g. "Electroweak Working Group
Report", a part of: D. Bardin, W. Hollik, G. Passarino (eds.), "Reports of the working group on
precision calculations for the Z resonance", CERN 95-03 (31 March 1995), and "Precision Calculation
Project Report" by D. Bardin, M. Grunewald, G. Passarino.
PDG
The
PDG -Particle Data Group with its regularly updated survey
The Review of Particle Physics uses since many years for the
determination of the Z boson properties and the analysis of the Standard Model, among other
material, ZFITTER.
For examles, see
rpp2011-rev-z-boson,
rpp2011-rev-standard-model,
rpp2011-list-z-boson.
.
LEPEWWG - the LEP electroweak working group
The perhaps most important applications for the
elementary particle physics community may be found at the webpage of the LEP electroweak working
group
LEPEWWG. The prediction of the Higgs mass,
assuming the Standard Model being valid, derived
from radiative corrections to precision observables measured at LEP and other facilities, is
visualized in the popular Blue Band Plot of the LEPEWWG.
s10_blueband.eps
s10_blueband.pdf
The plot is made with the ZFITTER package v. 6.43 [2008].
Updates may be found
here too,
e.g. under the subject
"LEP/TEV EW WG Plots for Summer 2011"; version 6.43 of ZFITTER is furtheron used.
The Cracow/Knoxville Monte Carlo Generator Family
An important class of applications are precision Monte Carlo programs: Some of them link parts of
ZFITTER.
E.g. the "Precision Monte-Carlo Event Generator KK
For Two-Fermion Final States In e+e- Collisions" by S. Jadach, B. Ward, Z. Was, see
hep-ph/9912214",
Comput.Phys.Commun. 130 (2000) 260-325.
This collaboration uses the ZFITTER library dizet v.6 for the calculation of higher order
corrections in the electroweak/QCD Standard Model
SMATASY, ZEFIT, BHAGENE etc.
There are a variety of projects with use of the ZFITTER package by so-called interfaces [written
by the users] and, of course, with a correct reference to ZFITTER, usually with indication of
the exact number of the ZFITTER version used.
We like to mention:
SMATASY - a project of M. Grunewald, S. Kirsch, T. Riemann, J. Rose
for the description of the Z boson line shape in a model-independent approach (inspired by S-matrix
theory)
ZEFIT - a project of A. Leike and S. Riemann for a model-independent
approach to some classes of theories beyond the Standard Model with extra gauge degrees of freedom
and thus with additional, heavy neutral gauge bosons
BHAGENE - a Monte-Carlo program of J. Field and T. Riemann for Bhabha
scattering at LEP
H. Stenzel's modifications to ZFITTER v.6.42 - unpublished interface
for ZFITTER v.6.42 with a proper implementation of the QCD renormalization scale.
A study of variation of the mu-scale indicates a perturbative uncertainty of about 1 %
for hadronic observables at the Z pole.
Reference: H.Stenzel, " Theoretical uncertainties for measurements of
alpha_s from electroweak observables", JHEP 0507:0132,2005.
Why the headline "Wo ZFITTER drin ist, soll auch ZFITTER
draufstehen"?
[In English by google translator: "Where there is ZFITTER should also stand upon
ZFITTER".]
Or simpler:
"What contains ZFITTER should also cite ZFITTER"
Many of the ZFITTER authors never applied the package by themselves for e.g. a physical analysis --
despite the fact that its creation, description and support deserve a lot of time and of
intellectual effort.
Since about 1985, and with continous support by JINR Dubna, Russia, we care about ZFITTER for the
benefit of the scientific community and in order
to support scientific
progress.
Besides many other publications, descriptions of the software have been published several times,
notebly a total of about 350 pages in the following articles:
-
D. Bardin, M. Bilenky, T. Riemann, M. Sachwitz, H. Vogt
"Dizet: A
Program Package for the Calculation of Electroweak One Loop Corrections for the Process e+ e- -> f+
f- Around the Z0 Peak"
Comput.Phys.Commun. 59 (1990) 303-312,
PHE-89-09
(Jun 1989), 17 pp.
-
D. Bardin, M. Bilenky, A.
Chizhov, O. Fedorenko, S. Ganguli, A. Gurtu,
M. Lokajicek, G. Mitselmakher, A. Olshevsky, J. Ridky,
S. Riemann, T. Riemann, M. Sachwitz, A. Sazonov, A. Schaile,
Yu. Sedykh, I. Sheer, L. Vertogradov
"ZFITTER: An Analytical program for fermion pair production in e+ e- annihilation"
CERN-TH-6443-92 (May 1992), 75 pp., E-Print:
hep-ph/9412201
[unpublished];
-
D. Bardin, L. Kalinovskaya, S. Riemann, T. Riemann et al.
Section 4.4 "ZFITTER basics"
pp. 86-92 of: D. Bardin et al., "Electroweak working group report",
CERN-95-03A, Sep 1997, 158 pp., e-Print:
hep-ph/9709229.
Published in: D. Bardin et al., "Reports of the working group on
precision calculations for the Z resonance", pp. 7-162.
-
D. Bardin, P. Christova , M. Jack, L. Kalinovskaya, A. Olchevski, S. Riemann,
T. Riemann
"ZFITTER v.6.21: A Semianalytical program for fermion pair production in e+ e- annihilation"
Comput.Phys.Commun. 133 (2001) 229-395, DESY-99-070 (Aug 1999), 192
pp., E-Print:
hep-ph/9908433
-
A. Arbuzov, M. Awramik, M. Czakon, A. Freitas, M. Grunewald, Klaus Monig, S. Riemann, T.
Riemann
"ZFITTER: A Semi-analytical program for fermion pair production in e+ e- annihilation, from version
6.21 to version 6.42"
Comput.Phys.Commun. 174
(2006) 728-758, DESY-05-034 etc. (Jul 2005), 60 pp., E-Print:
hep-ph/0507146
As a payback for the activities around ZFITTER, we expect from the scientific community that users
of ZFITTER give fair reference to the software package and its roots.
This was clearly expressed since many years on this homepage:
See
here.
In addition, there are two CPC license agreements, see at
http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADMJ, for
the articles describing ZFITTER,
Comp. Phys. Commun. 133 (2001)
229-395
and
Comput. Phys. Commun. 174 (2006) 728-758.
Gfitter
Since 2007, the well-known C++ package Gfitter is another application of the
ZFITTER software package.
Unfortunately, this had not been expressed by Gfitter's webpages or by the
Gfitter software [which is handled as being proprietary although the formal licence is of the
open-source type] or by the more than 35 publications between Dec 4, 2007 and July 4, 2011.
In arXiv:1107.0975 (July 5, 2011), the
authors of Gfitter express:
"The calculations of the partial and total widths of the Z and of the total width
of the W boson have been integrated from the ZFITTER package."
Unfortunately, they refer for that to a software package which does not exist and will never exist.
So the statement remained unclear concerning its content.
The preprint arXiv:1107.0975 was accepted for publication in EPJC, a Springer scientific journal,
in Septemer 2011, but never was published.
Gfitter authors in July 2011: Max Baak (CERN, Switzerland),
Henning Flächer (CERN, Switzerland),
Martin Goebel (U. Hamburg and DESY, Germany),
Johannes Haller (U. Göttingen, Germany),
Andreas Höcker (CERN, Switzerland),
Dörthe Ludwig (U. Hamburg and DESY, Germany),
Klaus Mönig (DESY, Germany),
Matthias Schott (CERN, Switzerland),
Jörg Stelzer (DESY, Germany).
The non-authorized hidden copy-paste-adapt (they call it `integration') of
ZFITTER software into Gfitter has been performed in 2006 under responsibility of the authors group
of Gfitter/GSM: Martin Goebel [diploma student at Univ. Hamburg, Germany], Johannes
Haller [professor at Univ. Hamburg, Germany], Andreas Höcker (CERN staff) and Klaus
Mönig (leading scientist at DESY, Zeuthen) and consists of a rewriting of ZFITTER Fortran code
into Gfitter c++ code.
Code by G. Degrassi et al. and by B. Kniehl, which was attached to the ZFITTER package (and quoted
there correctly), has also been `integrated'.
The legal status of these non-authorized hidden code `integrations' is not
agreed upon between the ZFITTER and Gfitter
groups [status 31 October 2011; unchanged 08 June 2012; unchanged June 2012; unchanged January 2013]. ZFITTER considers
the
Gfitter/GSM subpackage software as not legally
created.
There are also non-authorized hidden copy-paste-adaptations of about five pages of ZFITTER text
into publications of Gfitter people (article EPJC60(2009)543 and a diploma thesis).
The above statements may be checked by visiting the following documents:
[back to 15 December 2013]
.
-
gfitter-uses-175-functions-of-zfitter.txt
- List of the known 'integrations' from ZFITTER v.6.42 into Gfitter/gsm, status 10 May 2011
-
zfitter-code-in-gfitter.html -
Samples of the `integration' of ZFITTER software in Gfitter/GSM software, created 03. Aug 2011.
-
gfitter-gsm-patches.html -
Patches of misprints arising from the `integrations', created 28 Oct 2011.
-
gfitter-publications.html - Informations on publications of
Gfitter where the use of
[next word was misprinted until 24 Oct 2011]
ZFITTER software is not
quoted, created 10 August 2011. Last update 26 August 2012 by adding several Items.
-
zfitter-text-in-gfitter-publications.html
- Samples of [latex source] text, found in the main Gfitter publication and also in a diploma
thesis,
taken from latex source files written by ZFITTER authors. Created 24 Oct 2011.
Status: see ... link has been deactivated, 7 April 2013.
Some remarks on copyright questions in basic research, see ... link has been deactivated, 7 April 2013.
Legal status of ZFITTER
Additional information on the legal status of ZFITTER may be found ... link has been deactivated, 7 April 2013.
Urheberrecht - Verwertungsrecht - copyright - Intellectual
property - and all that
Introductory information for the innocent on Urheberrecht/Verwertungsrecht/copyright/Intellectual
property and all that may be found at our webpage on ... link has been deactivated, 7 April 2013.
Copyright
© Tord Riemann, zfitter.com, 2011 - 2013
Die Vervielfältigung, Verbreitung und Veröffentlichung
unterliegt der Creative
Commons-Lizenz [Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Keine Bearbeitung 3.0 Deutschland
License]
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Last modified: April 2013
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