In June 2012, we received a comment
by Wang et al. criticizing our paper [Nature 483, 444-447 (2012)]. By using some
very preliminary numerical simulations, they claimed that “there seems no advantage
of the equal slope tomography (EST)
method over simultaneous algebraic reconstruction
technique (SART).” After carefully studying their comment, we found that Wang et al.
were scientifically unethical in their data analysis. Specifically, Wang et al. drew a conclusion
based on their very preliminary simulations, while completely ignoring the more rigorous
experimental results published in 2008 [J. Struct. Biol. 164, 221-227 (2008)], in which
we clearly show that EST consistently outperforms SART. Furthermore, Wang’s conclusion
was based on a misleading comparison between two data sets at different conditions:
55 projections with EST vs. 69 projections with SART. We notified Nature of this and Wang et al. then stopped submission of that comment. Below are Wang’s comment and our
response.
1) Comment by Wang et al. (June 2012).