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How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

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Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#21
post #18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to break this to you but this is crackpot science, and there is no way such a manuscript can pass through any respectable physicist. Obviously you're not a physicist; let me simply say that this is not how a scientific paper looks like. It is just some philosophical text attempting to interpret some basic concepts in physics, introducing new fields no one ever seen (seriously?), and myriad of strange conjecture…

The requirement of testable predictions would rule out an entire field of current theoretical physics. Not that I disagree with you (quite the contrary), but (almost) no paper on String theory would be accepted under that rule. Also, papers on pilot wave theory vs. Kopenhagen interpretation would come to mind.

Science isn't a computer program based on some simple algorithm. I understand that it can be difficult to spot crackpot to a layman.

1. String theory doesn't assume 20 crazy things and its axioms aren't its only predictions 2. String theory does have a basic equation from which you draw many results, leading to falsifiable predictions that is not covered by standard model. Some of them may not practical with today's experimental tools, but that's not all of them. I take you haven't seen any string theory papers. I'm saying we're suddenly going to see superparticles this year at LHC, but it is entirely plausible that if they exist, LHC should eventually detect them. 3. You're probably talking about this http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/2/e1501466 recently posted on HN. In case you missed, that is an experimental paper.

Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#22
post #19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to break this to you but this is crackpot science, and there is no way such a manuscript can pass through any respectable physicist. Obviously you're not a physicist; let me simply say that this is not how a scientific paper looks like. It is just some philosophical text attempting to interpret some basic concepts in physics, introducing new fields no one ever seen (seriously?), and myriad of strange conjecture…

You pulling most out of context. The theory is here: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Structures-Matter-Supergravitati... Most of your points are taken out of context. If you don't understand the model, they don't make much sense. First this are the basic assumptions: - 3 dimensional eucledian space without physical properties - 2 types of very small fundamental particels. Basically balls that are indestructible and vibra…

I said a respectable physics journal, not no-name journals with impact factor not. Furthermore, geophysics and atmospheric physics aren't even remotely related to high energy physics, so I don't understand why you're talking about those papers anyway: neither high energy physics nor cosmology are his fields.

Let's assume you don't know any physics. You can go with this: if a new model is any good, if it is indeed a groundbreaking new theory, it appears on Physical Review Letters. It does't appear just on arxiv (only to be removed 3 times and gets the author banned) and definitely not on the crackpot hive vixra.

He wasn't banned from axiv because he is a hidden super-genius misunderstood by his stupid narrow-minded peers and prevail after his death. He was banned because, for god's sake, he is a crackpot scientist.

Apparently, I need to spell this out for you: his publication is a disaster, no respectable physics department will ever even consider hiring him.

I'm not even gonna waste time on your "theoretical" ramblings about his crackpot manuscript, which is 100% bullshit.

I checked your post history: either you're that crackpot or you're a disciple of his cult (which might be expected given that he's written several books based on his "theory). I'd bet on the former, that you're Stoyan Sarg Sargoytchev; your very first post here, as well as many of your other posts are about his "theory", I can't image someone getting hooked up it, promote and defend a no-name pseudoscientist for so long.

Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#23
post #16
post #15

Arxiv banned the physicist who actually was able to build a physical model that makes sense in every aspect. Just because the reviewer did not understand one of the conclusions, the periodic table, that was a result of the theory. Of course you don't understand a result if you don't understand the theory which requires months/years to really grasp. The principle they are using only works if you stay in your paradigm,…

Sorry to break this to you but this is crackpot science, and there is no way such a manuscript can pass through any respectable physicist. Obviously you're not a physicist; let me simply say that this is not how a scientific paper looks like. It is just some philosophical text attempting to interpret some basic concepts in physics, introducing new fields no one ever seen (seriously?), and myriad of strange conjecture…

[deleted]

Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#24
post #22
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pulling most out of context. The theory is here: http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Structures-Matter-Supergravitati... Most of your points are taken out of context. If you don't understand the model, they don't make much sense. First this are the basic assumptions: - 3 dimensional eucledian space without physical properties - 2 types of very small fundamental particels. Basically balls that are indestructible and vibra…

I said a respectable physics journal, not no-name journals with impact factor not . Furthermore, geophysics and atmospheric physics aren't even remotely related to high energy physics, so I don't understand why you're talking about those papers anyway: neither high energy physics nor cosmology are his fields. Let's assume you don't know any physics. You can go with this: if a new model is any good, if it is indeed a…

I've read the paper that's available on Arxiv and agree it's quackpottery [1]. The paper does not introduce concepts in a scientific way. It seems to me like a series of ramblings or ideas about how things might work, with no results or justifications, indistinguishable from hypothetical future technology in science fiction. There's no actual scientific content, no presentation of a new theory and working out results that derive from it.

Be advised, poelzi seems like an apologist for Stoyan Sarg. See previous comment history where they mention the theory and link to the book numerous times. poelzi seems to mention and link to M. Sarg's book at every opportunity. E.g. [2], while also saying that "The papers helped me to get into the theory, but real deep understanding is not possible from them." This alone should be enough to tell you that it's garbage science. The papers reference material published in M. Sarg's books and do not stand alone.

poelzi, if you believe this is science then you've been led astray. It's not. It's pseudo-scientific make-believe. There are no scientific theories, explanations, or results in M. Sarg's papers. Credible scientists write papers describing their results to the world, that are self-contained and justify the theory and results that they allege. M. Sarg's papers and/or books may contain assertions that his theory actually explains things and makes predictions, but there's no substance in the papers whatsoever that I can tell. For [3] to be a credible paper it would need to extensively document the mathematical modeling that yielded these structures (or cite another paper that does).

Perhaps the degree to which these papers are lacking will be more apparent if you review some respected scientific papers introducing new theories, such as "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" [4]. If you are a layperson without scientific training, then the introductory paragraphs might not be obviously distinguishable from M. Sarg's writings. However, the paper is concrete and lays out explanations alongside mathematical results. For example, observe page 10 in the PDF where the real mathematics begins, as Maxwell lays out his results with a series of equations interspersed with commentary about what they mean and how they're derived. This continues for the rest of the paper, and is the justification by which Maxwell's results are asserted and explained. Anyone thinking that they can credibly evaluate a unified theory of everything should feel comfortable working with Maxwell's equations on a white board, and using them to predict the behavior of physical systems; his equations are now introductory level for students of physics, and indeed Maxwell's equations are now taught to high school students taking AP Physics C (Electricity and Magnetism).

M. Sarg's papers are absent any kind of explanation or justifications; they are absent mathematics and seem to be bare assertions or "mentions" of ideas in his books. This is not how credible science is published to the world. Anyone can whip up diagrams and data plots alleging that their theory explains something, but without the substance behind it for others to review in a detailed mathematical way, there's no science there.

[1] http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0205052

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11166770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10781247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10770899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10626579 etc.

[3] I came across another paper "Graphical 3D Modeling and Analysis of Molecules and Nanostructures with the BSM-SG Atomic Models", which has a lot of pictures of hypothetical atomic structures, and no mathematics describing the derivation of these structures. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270572848_Graphical...

[4] http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/155/459

Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#25

I have found arxiv to be a dead-end when publishing without affiliation. It's impossible to get feedback on papers, let alone the necessary endorsement to submit. That leaves SSRN as the only option. Arxiv requires you to email authors for endorsements which almost never works, since it's essentially spam.

The arXiv is not necessarily a tool where everybody can publish everything. It is primarily a tool for the community, which consists mostly of people with affiliations. If you want feedback for something as an outsider, go to conferences and present a poster.

A few more nice points about arxiv: 1) peer-review can take sometime, it's nice to be able to get your work out earlier publicly for the records, which you can make a claim later on 2) even after publication, it is accessible by anyone (and it is common to update the arxiv version to match the published version, including improvements after peer review)

It's probably not very useful for getting comments. The only comments I ever get are along the lines "I see your nice manuscript, please don't forget to cite these papers of mine". To my surprise, it is mostly "leading" physicists who send such mails (which makes me doubt their citation records).

Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#26
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) opposition to journal copyrighting policies 2) cost

Most journals in the fields dominating the arXiv (physics, math, CS, and probably more) allow you to submit to the arXiv concurrently. So unless you refuse out of principle, you can both get free refereeing and release the paper open access.

I'm aware that most subdisciplines of physics and CS are sympathetic to arXiv, but that is most certainly not the case in bio and chemistry, although the rise of biorxiv may start changing things.

Re: How the ArXiv Decides What’s Science

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most journals in the fields dominating the arXiv (physics, math, CS, and probably more) allow you to submit to the arXiv concurrently. So unless you refuse out of principle, you can both get free refereeing and release the paper open access.

I'm aware that most subdisciplines of physics and CS are sympathetic to arXiv, but that is most certainly not the case in bio and chemistry, although the rise of biorxiv may start changing things.

OK, but paulpauper was considering submitting the to arXiv.
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