Is Sitchin a "scholar"?  Well, sort of in a way, in the same way that Immanuel Velikovsky was a "scholar"a self-taught person with very firmly held beliefs about ancient history and the recent history of the Solar System who was immune to any suggestion that he might be wrong. Sitchin and Velikovsky are known to be wrong because the "real world" really does not resemble the fantasy world these "scholars" described. The fact that so many readers among the public find Sitchin's ideas interesting is a testament to their scientific illiteracy and ignorance of how knowledge is accrued by true scholars.