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[交流] 难得一见:Banned By Gaussian

Who is Gaussian, Inc.?

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Pople group at Carnegie-Mellon
University began to develop a general purpose computer code, based on the
use of gaussian basis functions, in order to enable molecular electronic
structure calculations.  The initial computer program, called Gaussian70,
was made freely available to users via the Quantum Chemistry Program
Exchange (QCPE).  Subsequent versions, through Gaussian80, were distributed
in the same manner. After 1980, in order to recoup development costs for the
increasingly popular program, a small charge was implemented for subsequent
versions of the Gaussian code.  Professor Pople, the recipient of the 1998
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has not been associated with Gaussian, Inc. since
1991.

The departure (and subsequent "banning" of Professor Pople from the
Gaussian project marked a sad day for science, a day in which commerce
trumped science and loyalty.

The goal of this site is to shed light on some practices of Gaussian, Inc.
that can undermine basic scientific ideals.



What is meant by "Banned By Gaussian"?

Simply: YOU CAN NOT USE THE GAUSSIAN PROGRAM!

Restricting access to the Gaussian program, a.k.a. "banning", has become an
increasingly common practice at Gaussian, Inc.

Banning occurs on different levels.  Simple banning may consist of specific
research groups at an institution that are prohibited from purchasing and/or
using the latest versions of the Gaussian program.  Furthermore, in these
cases, colleagues at the institution of those who are banned also cannot use
the Gaussian program if they share a departmental or college computer -- a
common occurance. Even those colleagues who use different computers must
sign draconian agreements stifling scientific exchange, in order to use the
Gaussian program.

An extreme form of banning dictates that no single person at an institution
can use any commercial version of Gaussian ever created.

Perhaps the next form of banning should be labeled "Paranoid Extreme" which
is equivalent to extreme banning, but stipulates that even the thought of
using Gaussian could result in being sued. (omitted for fear of being sued!)

C&E News chronicled Northwestern University's "Banned By Gaussian"
experience in their July 12th, 1999 issue.

Take heart if you have been banned ...

It has been said that mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery. It is also
true that having your research group or your university banned by Gaussian
is recognition of your outstanding scientific achievements!



Comparing timings.

Those who sign the Gaussian license must agree not to publicly compare
Gaussian performance (e.g. timing data) with that of other codes ...

"Further, under no circumstances will LICENSEE quote any performance data to
third parties except with respect to the Software as delivered to LICENSEE."



Reviewing papers.

One of the cornerstones of good science is peer review.  Many journals,
including JACS, will not publish computational papers unless their results
can be verified.  This is not an easy task if you are prevented from using
the program that generated the results!

More about ACS policies regarding computational papers, click here.



Who is banned?

By University/Institution:

California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
University of Florida
University of Georgia
Georgia Institute of Technology
Iowa State University
Michigan State University
Northwestern University
South Carolina State University
State University of New York, Buffalo
University of California, Berkeley
By Individual:

Reinhart Ahlrichs (Karlsruhe)
Rod J. Bartlett (Florida)
Emily A. Carter (Princeton)
Richard A. Friesner (Columbia)
Tom R. Furlani (SUNY-Buffalo)
Jurgen Gauss (Mainz)
Peter M.W. Gill (Australian National University)
William A. Goddard III (Caltech)
Mark S. Gordon (Iowa State)
Martin Head-Gordon (UC Berkeley)
Anna I. Krylov (USC)
Per Ake Malmqvist (Lund)
Ajith Perera (Florida)
Piotr Piecuch (Michigan State)
John A. Pople (Northwestern)
Mark A. Ratner (Northwestern)
Vitaly A. Rassolov (South Carolina)
H.F. Schaefer III (Georgia)
George C. Schatz (Northwestern University)
C. David Sherrill (Georgia Tech)
Michael W. Schmidt (Iowa State)
John F. Stanton (Texas)
Theresa L. Windus (PNNL)
The individuals named on bannedbygaussian.org have all reviewed the site and
consented to have their names to appear.



Join the club ...

Are you feeling left out? Would you also like to be banned by Gaussian? All
you need to do is ...

Publish timing comparisons with your favorite program(s)


Announce a spiffy new code you're making available that is faster than TOP
(that other program)


Announce that you're putting your latest code into that of a "competitor"


What's in the news ...

Nature has published a news article titled "Software company bans
competitive users" to inform the rest of the scientific community. (Vol.
429, p231, 20 May 2004).


C&EN has a little segment on the brewing controversy to better inform the
rest of the chemistry community, see Grumblings about Gaussian in the March
8th, 2004 edition (Vol. 82, Number 10, page 29)


The World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists (WATOC) passed a
resolution that "deplores actions that restrict the use of the binary code
by specific universities, computer centers, departments, professors,
postdoctoral fellows, and graduate or undergraduate students, based on
criteria such as the presence at these institutions of individuals
associated with competing companies or their collaborators." Click here for
more info.


Other sites have added links to us:


Openscience.org - The OpenScience project is dedicated to writing and
releasing free and Open Source scientific software. A group of scientists,
mathematicians and engineers who want to encourage a collaborative
environment in which science can be pursued by anyone who is inspired to
discover something new about the natural world.


Center for Complex Molecular Systems and Biomolecules in the Czech Republic -
The Center focuses on the theoretical, computational, and experimental
study of molecular clusters, DNA, molecular sieves, and aminoacids.


Contact us ...

Please send comments to info@bannedbygaussian.org
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