BIO-Complexity



BIO-Complexity is an open access journal published by the weirdly named Biologic Institute, a lame front for creation science. The journal "aims to be the leading forum for testing the scientific merit of the claim that intelligent design (ID) is a credible explanation for life". Good luck with that!

The articles
The first two articles exploit ambiguities in biochemical mechanisms in the typical "God of the gaps"-type argument, and neither provides evidence for an intelligent designer; neither even mentions a designer in the respective papers. Both articles have authors from the Biologic Institute's editorial board (which also includes ID leaders William Dembski and Michael Behe). The Discovery Institute lauded the journal's formation, implying that intelligent design papers were ideologically blocked from publication.

Criticism
Despite the intention to have one article per month, it took from May 2010 until December 2010 for another article to be published (by William Dembski, a member of the editorial team). Only one article was published in 2011, and three total are by Douglas Axe. For 2012, the Panda's Thumb blog points out: …the 2012 volume contains exactly two research articles, one “critical review” and one “critical focus”, for a grand total of four items. The editorial board has 30 members; they must be kept very busy handling all those papers.

Despite its lackluster performance, the journal proclaimed, "Over 2,000 PDFs downloaded… In its first two months, BIO-Complexity has attracted a large readership." The journal was panned in a review by young earth creationist and baraminologist Todd C. Wood:

In the larger scheme of things, I am sensing a discouraging pattern to BIO-Complexity publications. As I quoted above, the journal is supposed to be about "testing the scientific merit of the claim that intelligent design (ID) is a credible explanation for life," which is a great goal. But this is the fifth paper published by BIO-Complexity, and it's the fifth paper that focuses on perceived inadequacies of evolution. So when are we going to test "the scientific merit of the claim that intelligent design (ID) is a credible explanation for life?"

If a young earth creationist doesn't like it, who does?