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Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversial Ideas’

chronicle.com

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Re: Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversial Ideas’

#2

Post by mixedmath »

> One unusual feature of the journal will be giving authors the option to use a pseudonym (though the journal’s editors say they hope most will feel comfortable using their real names). The thought is that such a policy would allow an untenured academic to publish a controversial paper, and perhaps to claim it later when he or she is on firmer career footing. Or maybe just to put it out there, and never claim it at all.

That seems like an interesting, but perhaps ultimately bad idea. I'm uncertain --- it's certainly interesting.

I see that a founder is Peter Singer, who has sometimes in the past suggested that it may be better for a family (financially and happiness-wise) to kill a disabled child and have another [1]. He considers this from an ethical perspective.

I can imagine it being frustrating to want to consider hard, taboo ethical quandaries from a neutral standpoint.

[1]: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Arguments-That-Harm-and/24...

Re: Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversial Ideas’

#5

Post by 542458 »

I’d be more than a little concerned that this will turn into the “journal of not considering confounds around race/gender” and/or the “journal of old eugenics ideas that were already rejected years ago”. There are certainly parts of certain fields that suffer from too much groupthink or trend chasing, but I feel that this is putting the cart before the horse: ideas don’t gain merit because they’re controversial, they have merit despite or irrespective of that fact.

It’s also worth noting that several large and reputable publications have already set up subcommittees dedicated to handling controversial ideas. So the idea of a venue for controversial ideas isn’t really all that novel.

And while I’ve seen pubs get rejected from one venue or another for being controversial, I’ve never heard of a solid scientific pub getting blackballed from everything. Anything with even the slightest bit of rigour can almost certainly find a venue somewhere - there are a lot of second and third tier publications out there already without a lot to lose.

Re: Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversial Ideas’

#6

Post by [deleted] »

542458 wrote: post #5

I’d be more than a little concerned that this will turn into the “journal of not considering confounds around race/gender” and/or the “journal of old eugenics ideas that were already rejected years ago”. There are certainly parts of certain fields that suffer from too much groupthink or trend chasing, but I feel that this is putting the cart before the horse: ideas don’t gain merit because they’re controversial, they…

[deleted]

Re: Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversial Ideas’

#7

Post by s3r3nity »

mixedmath wrote: post #2

> One unusual feature of the journal will be giving authors the option to use a pseudonym (though the journal’s editors say they hope most will feel comfortable using their real names). The thought is that such a policy would allow an untenured academic to publish a controversial paper, and perhaps to claim it later when he or she is on firmer career footing. Or maybe just to put it out there, and never claim it at a…

I came here to mention a similar comment.

Ultimately, I think the success will be determined by the fact (hypothesis?) that if you de-center the author's authority from the argument about the validity of an argument or idea, you can instead re-center to something more foundational and logical.

i.e. actually discussing the idea itself, rather than name-calling and mud-slinging as a form of discourse ("This person is a crazy Nazi / Maoist / Fascist / etc etc. - therefore how can you believe anything they say?")

Re: Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversial Ideas’

#9

Post by msla »

asianthrowaway wrote: post #3

I fully support this idea, but I wonder if it will impair the ability to collaborate academically.

> I fully support this idea, but I wonder if it will impair the ability to collaborate academically.

We've solved that idea a few times on a technical level, most notably using public-key encryption.

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