I think that this is basically saying "Computer Science is science because it uses science." But Electrical Engineering uses just as much scientific method in its research papers as CS does. Does this make EE a scientific field?
To my mind, every engineering field has researchers who use the scientific method every day to produce stuff for the engineers to use. The field is not defined by those researchers -- it's defined by the users (engineers). EE researchers often publish stuff based on the scientific method, or by proof, but the end product is meant to be used by engineers. CS researchers often publish stuff based on the scientific method, or by proof, but the end product is meant to be used by ... well, we call the "programmers". But they're engineers of software.
Interesting perspective. My thought is that CS is what we call what those researchers do to differentiate it from what the users do.
Creating a new tool through the scientific method would be the science, whereas implementing a system or product would be the 'software engineering' - the application of the science. I don't have a good basket term for both research and application, but I'd probably go for something like 'Computing'.
This could be applied to any engineering field as well, it's just a matter of naming practices. I'd be happy to admit that 'electrical engineering science' existed (though the name is horrible) to refer to the research in electrical engineering.
To my mind, every engineering field has researchers who use the scientific method every day to produce stuff for the engineers to use. The field is not defined by those researchers -- it's defined by the users (engineers). EE researchers often publish stuff based on the scientific method, or by proof, but the end product is meant to be used by engineers. CS researchers often publish stuff based on the scientific method, or by proof, but the end product is meant to be used by ... well, we call the "programmers". But they're engineers of software.