Bogus author tricks conservative journal

The editor of a leading conservative Australian journal says he was "tricked" into publishing a hoaxed article about popular scares on biotechnology issues written by a bogus author.

Journalist Margaret Simons revealed the hoax on Tuesday via media websites and political internet newsletter Crikey.

Quadrant editor Keith Windschuttle said in a statement that the piece, published in its January/February issue was not a hoax but was "simply a piece of fraudulent journalism submitted to Quadrant under false pretences".

He accused Simons of posing as the author, a fictitious writer named Sharon Gould. Simons has denied this.

Windschuttle said unlike a "genuine hoax", the Gould piece relied on real issues, real people and real publications for most of its content.

"At most, all that Gould has done is misrepresent the contents of the works she cites, some of them footnotes," he said.

In her Crikey report, Simons said Windschuttle "has been taken in by a hoax intended to show that he will print outrageous propositions".

She said the anonymous hoaxer provided details of the plot, including an online diary.

Windschuttle said Simons contacted him on Tuesday morning "to announce, triumphantly, that we had been hoaxed".

He said she told him she knew the author and that aspects of the story were untrue and offered to list them.

"I found it surprising that Simons, if she was simply a journalist reporting what someone else had done, could offer to produce such a detailed analysis in such a short time," he said.

"So who is Sharon Gould? Margaret Simons seems to be the only one who knows."

Although she said she knew of the hoax before she published, Simons denied she was Gould. "It's not me", she told News Limited.

"They approached me about three weeks ago, after Keith Windschuttle had accepted the article."

Windschuttle said Crikey editor Jonathan Green should be aware "that his publication's involvement in the manufacture of this story is unethical".

But Green told News Limited: "Look, it was a good story, and it's not my job to save Keith Windschuttle from himself."