4 ms·

Pseudonymity in Academic Publishing

blfr 2y ago
> the AMS were unwilling to publish a paper by an author whose real-world identity they did not know Frankly, shameful. Editors, especially in mathematics, should be able to judge the work on its merits.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  > Editors, especially in mathematics, should be able to judge the work on its merits. It's not a mathematical paper. The AMS version is headed: > This essay incorporates with permission material from our pseudonymous colleague XOR'easter, who also contributed many suggestions during the writing process. By the extent of XOR’easter’s contributions, they would normally be credited as an author. However it was not possible in time to find a way to strictly preserve anonymity and assign legal copyright. All four contributors disagree with this exclusion. I regret its necessity — Ed.
- staunton 2y ago
  > Frankly, shameful. Editors, especially in mathematics, should be able to judge the work on its merits. You might end up receiving hundreds of (perhaps AI-generated) submissions every day and reviewers would just refuse to read any of it.
- kurikuri 2y ago
  It is less about the quality of work, but that the source itself should have some form of ‘blame.’ Plagiarism is still a risk, and the main deterrence against it is the reputation of the authors.
  - slavik81 2y ago
    There are some rather important papers that were written under pseudonyms, e.g. Student (1908). "The Probable Error of a Mean"
    - cafard 2y ago
      Well, that was the policy of his employer (Guinness).
    - otoburb 2y ago
      And Nicolas Bourbaki's "Éléments de mathématique".[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki
- knappa 2y ago
  Not a question of merits, but of how to make sure the journal really had acquired the rights to publish the article.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    It's not that either. If the journal couldn't make sure it had the right to publish, it wouldn't publish. Whether or not one of the coauthors is formally listed as coauthor doesn't affect the disposition of the copyright. It's a question of compliance with the journal's formal publication process.
drpixie 2y ago
Re the need for anonymous papers, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Controversial_Ideas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Controversial_Ideas and https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/ https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/ (the JCI tends to the arts and philosophy).
- LordGronk 2y ago
  As I recall, JCRI does know the identity of each author.
superwmit 2y ago
Sorry but I disagree with the biased perspectives of PRofessor David Eppstein. He absolutely doesn't know what is actually happening on Wikipedia with certain clowns taking monopoly over the edits. I've seen good papers not being cited because they were never published! What does published mean? They are not getting into detail ... but place biased burden on the reader. The bitcoin paper by Satoshi Nakamoto was NEVER PUBLISHED! IT would not have been citable as source on wikipedia as a result of clowns editing the sources. Other good papers on ArXiv or even cited papers never published on specific venues other than crypto ArXiv are held back by very biased crank editors on wikipdia. One of them is a clown called ... MrOllie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:MrOllie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:MrOllie Who has been doing his fair share of introducing paid bias by certain third parties. I wonder if this is not one of the puppet accounts of David Eppstein. Wikipedia as it has converged is nothing close to what the David Eppstein has outlined in the article he advertised. Sorry. Far cry.

blfr 2y ago

> the AMS were unwilling to publish a paper by an author whose real-world identity they did not know Frankly, shameful. Editors, especially in mathematics, should be able to judge the work on its merits.

thaumasiotes 2y ago
> Editors, especially in mathematics, should be able to judge the work on its merits. It's not a mathematical paper. The AMS version is headed: > This essay incorporates with permission material from our pseudonymous colleague XOR'easter, who also contributed many suggestions during the writing process. By the extent of XOR’easter’s contributions, they would normally be credited as an author. However it was not possible in time to find a way to strictly preserve anonymity and assign legal copyright. All four contributors disagree with this exclusion. I regret its necessity — Ed.
staunton 2y ago
> Frankly, shameful. Editors, especially in mathematics, should be able to judge the work on its merits. You might end up receiving hundreds of (perhaps AI-generated) submissions every day and reviewers would just refuse to read any of it.
kurikuri 2y ago
It is less about the quality of work, but that the source itself should have some form of ‘blame.’ Plagiarism is still a risk, and the main deterrence against it is the reputation of the authors.
- slavik81 2y ago
  There are some rather important papers that were written under pseudonyms, e.g. Student (1908). "The Probable Error of a Mean"
  - cafard 2y ago
    Well, that was the policy of his employer (Guinness).
  - otoburb 2y ago
    And Nicolas Bourbaki's "Éléments de mathématique".[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki
knappa 2y ago
Not a question of merits, but of how to make sure the journal really had acquired the rights to publish the article.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  It's not that either. If the journal couldn't make sure it had the right to publish, it wouldn't publish. Whether or not one of the coauthors is formally listed as coauthor doesn't affect the disposition of the copyright. It's a question of compliance with the journal's formal publication process.

drpixie 2y ago

Re the need for anonymous papers, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Controversial_Ideas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Controversial_Ideas and https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/ https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/ (the JCI tends to the arts and philosophy).

LordGronk 2y ago
As I recall, JCRI does know the identity of each author.

superwmit 2y ago

Sorry but I disagree with the biased perspectives of PRofessor David Eppstein. He absolutely doesn't know what is actually happening on Wikipedia with certain clowns taking monopoly over the edits. I've seen good papers not being cited because they were never published! What does published mean? They are not getting into detail ... but place biased burden on the reader. The bitcoin paper by Satoshi Nakamoto was NEVER PUBLISHED! IT would not have been citable as source on wikipedia as a result of clowns editing the sources. Other good papers on ArXiv or even cited papers never published on specific venues other than crypto ArXiv are held back by very biased crank editors on wikipdia. One of them is a clown called ... MrOllie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:MrOllie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:MrOllie Who has been doing his fair share of introducing paid bias by certain third parties. I wonder if this is not one of the puppet accounts of David Eppstein. Wikipedia as it has converged is nothing close to what the David Eppstein has outlined in the article he advertised. Sorry. Far cry.