Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Drayson on 5 May (HL2987), whether the citation rate of research papers normalised by subject area has provided a reliable measure of their quality in the case of papers claiming to have derived human embryonic stem cells following nuclear transfer, beginning with those described in the journal Science (Volume 303, pages 1669–1674).
Answer
The MRC has not undertaken an analysis of citation rates for research papers claiming to have derived human embryonic stem cells from nuclear transfer, and this could not be undertaken without incurring disproportionate cost.