The Missing Step

Bob was delighted when, in his final year in grad school, a joint paper with his faculty thesis supervisor, Carol, was accepted at a competitive symposium in Theoretical Computer Science. The paper sketched the proof of a conjecture in complexity theory which had been the subject of a half dozen prior papers. Bob's presentation was heard favorably by experts at the symposium, and afterward Bob began the detailed write-up of the proof for inclusion in his thesis.

But now, midway through the write-up he realizes he cannot prove an essential lemma which had earlier seemed routine to both him and Carol. He tells Carol, and after a couple of days' work, they realize that they had overlooked a serious lacuna in the proof when they published their symposium paper.

Carol says they are obligated to publish an erratum in the following years' symposium volume; the deadline for submissions to next years' volume has formally just passed, but she thinks they can still squeeze the erratum in if they mail it promptly.

Next scenario

Research Ethics Homepage