THE Edinburgh professor whose research paper was condemned after it claimed that the “neverendum” was damaging UK investment in Scotland has blamed proindependence academics for the criticism.

The National showed last week that stories in the pro-Union newspapers based on Professor Colin Jones paper on investment in Scottish commercial property were wrong and out of date.

READ MORE: Investigation: 'Neverendum' news story busted by experts

We also revealed that the paper published in Property Management was rejected by a more prestigious publication after peer reviews which criticised Professor Jones’ analysis and methodology.

Professor Jones told The National: “All the academics quoted in your article I believe belong to a formal group who support Scottish independence so their comments have to be seen from that perspective.

“I am not a member of a political party, nor have I had any involvement in campaigning on the independence issue.

He stoutly defended his paper, referring to the “vagaries and limitations of the refereeing system”.

He added: “Everyone who works in academic life knows about the vagaries and limitations of the refereeing system. Some of my most cited papers were rejected by at least two journals before being published.

“Normally if rejected an author will take on board comments, if possible, and submit to another journal so the final published paper could be very different from the original.

“The refereeing system has a range of problems including vested interests who dismiss papers because of their own biases. The point about the paper was the independence referendum did not affect the Scottish economy unlike Brexit but it still had an impact on investment and capital values because of perceived political risk. The paper explains that the Scottish economy was growing in the study period but UK investors were withdrawing.

“What the Sunday Times articles strangely does not mention is the growth in international investment in real estate.”