Journal: Chaos, Solitons & Fractals
rlolders...@amherst.edu
I have noticed that recent issues of the journal Chaos, Solitons and
Fractals have the same author for more than 10% of the published
papers, and that author also happens to be the editor.
Is this physics journal being run like a vanity publishing forum? Or
is it a private journal?
Is this considered cricket?
I would welcome the thoughts of others on what appears to me to be a
very unusual situation.
Best,
Knecht
Lou Pecora
<a78f7bef-95bb-4110...@k30g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
"rlolders...@amherst.edu" <rlold...@amherst.edu> wrote:
You're quite right. One issue I counted 9 (!) articles by the same
person. A quick search of INSPEC shows 46 articles by the same author
since early 2005 in that one journal. That's approximately 13
papers/year in the same journal. Almost all are high energy physics,
quantum field theory, or Lie group topics, not usually what is published
in that journal, although I stopped looking at it some years ago.
Yes, this is unusual. I am not an expert in the above fields, but as a
physicist who has published in the nonlinear/chaos literature for over
20 years I can tell you that 13 papers a year in any journal is unheard
of except for people with large research teams. I see only one name on
the papers I am talking about.
The journal is published by Elsevier Ltd. which publishes other physics
journals and is pretty good although not on the level of Physical
Review, Europhysics, and some others, IMHO.
--
-- Lou Pecora
Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply
<pec...@anvil.nrl.navy.mil> writes:
> Yes, this is unusual. I am not an expert in the above fields, but as a
> physicist who has published in the nonlinear/chaos literature for over
> 20 years I can tell you that 13 papers a year in any journal is unheard
> of except for people with large research teams. I see only one name on
> the papers I am talking about.
I don't know if you are referring to just your field or if "any journal"
implies "in any field". 13 sole-author papers per year is exceptional,
but not unheard of. Several years ago, I remember reading the wonderful
but now defunct (or, rather, replaced or superseded) Quarterly Journal
of the Royal Astronomical Society, in particular the "Reports from the
Observatories" section. In one year, John D. Barrow (then at Sussex)
had about a dozen single-author papers and was on some multi-author
papers as well---all of them in quite reputable journals (Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Classical and Quantum Gravity
etc). I believe he also published a popular book or two that same year.
When I later met someone who had known him at Sussex, I asked if he was
the workaholic type I assumed. No, more or less a 9--5 guy! So it is
possible.
a student
> In article
> <a78f7bef-95bb-4110-94a0-137533de4...@k30g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
>
> "rlolders...@amherst.edu" <rlolders...@amherst.edu> wrote:
> > I have noticed that recent issues of the journal Chaos, Solitons and
> > Fractals have the same author for more than 10% of the published
> > papers, and that author also happens to be the editor.
>
> > Is this physics journal being run like a vanity publishing forum? Or
> > is it a private journal?
>
> > Is this considered cricket?
>
> > I would welcome the thoughts of others on what appears to me to be a
> > very unusual situation.
>
> > Best,
> > Knecht
No, it's not cricket. The SPIRES abstract site indicates he has
published around 120 papers in this journal since 2002 (http://
www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?rawcmd=ea+El+Naschie,+M+S),
and around 3 papers in other journals (counting one from 1998). This
certainly raises a peer-review issue. It is odd, because there are
some respectable names on the Editorial Board.
In the last 5 issues of this fortnightly journal there are 16 papers
by him, and 7 papers by others about his "E-infinity" theory. I like
the look of the ones that explain the fine structure constant in terms
of
137 = 96 fermions + 10 bosons + 11 supergravity dimensions
I would say he takes himself seriously (not that that is any argument
for taking his papers seriously!). But it would be better for
scientific accountability of its journals if Elsevier had a policy
about the number of papers members of the editorial board could
publish (particularly in relation to the number of papers they publish
elsewhere!).
BTW, there was discussion on Peter Woit's "Not Even Wrong" blog in
2005 - http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=192 .
Knecht
Pursuant to the previous discussion: a check of the "Articles In
Press" list for Chaos, Solitons & Fractals yields the following
results:
El Naschie is the author of 4 of the most recent 25 papers added to
the list.
So the beat goes on. The odd thing is that each paper appears to say
the same sort of thing, i.e, bizarre numerology of the type that you
so perfectly characterized in your post.
If the editorial board is composed of "respectable names", why is this
allowed to continue?
Amazing,
Knecht