This is not acceptable. A scientist cannot make a public claim of discovering something that s/he knows had already been discovered by others. I know it is obvious but that is exactly what happened in this press release of @theDESurvey @fermilab

@theDESurvey @Fermilab +..
The lead author, Yuanyuan Zhang, claims that "we discovered that intracluster light is a pretty good radial tracer of dark matter", which sounds awfully similar to...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab +... this 2019 paper by Mireia Montes and Ignacio Trujillo (MT19) "Intracluster light: a luminous tracer for dark matter in clusters of galaxies" ...+

https://t.co/lzZ0KnPUB7
@theDESurvey @Fermilab +...Could it be that the authors were not aware of the MT19 work? No. I mean, it's not like MT19 was an obscure paper published in a small journal 30 years ago. It was published last year in one of the top astronomy journals... AND... +
@theDESurvey @Fermilab +...AND... NASA made a press release about it:

https://t.co/yJ3crQjWwT

That in addition to their home institution @IAC_Astrofisica press release:
https://t.co/yb60Mws5Cg

...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +...
The MT19 paper was all over the science media ...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +.. There's no question that the authors were well aware of the MT19 paper because IT IS PROPERLY CREDITED IN THEIR TWO PAPERS. Here are some screenshots from both papers...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +...In fact, the second paper says that "we further explore this connection" (see attached screenshot). So how does one go from "providing additional evidence" and "further exploring [a] connection" to "we have discovered that"??? ...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +...We're told all the time that scientists need to overstate the importance of their results in a press release, or explain it in a way that the public can grasp the impact of the research. Look, I'm not saying this work is not important. It is! But this PR is not acceptable...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +...We cannot lie to the public and that's what's happened here. I don't know whose fault it is. Exaggerated headlines or bad press releases are often blamed on the journalist who wrote them. But in the institutions I know, ...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +..the lead scientist is ultimately responsible for the contents of a press release. Furthermore, Zhang's quote is "we discovered..."...+
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica +...In my opinion, it is dishonest to oversell one's achievements in a PR. The discovery that ICL traces dark matter was done by Montes and Trujillo, as is correctly stated in the scientific papers. The public should not be told a different story.

PS: Montes is @mireiamontesq
@theDESurvey @Fermilab @IAC_Astrofisica @mireiamontesq cc @emulenews @El_Lobo_Rayado @cienciabrujula @SaraRC83 @GastonGiribet @joseedelstein @DarkSapiens @radioskylab_es @StartsWithABang

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