Saturday, September 02, 2006
JSH: Math journals do not just die
My previous post was meant to scare you, as the story here is so far beyond what I thought was possible, like I DID get a paper published in a mathematical journal.
If that is news to you considering how much I talk about it, then think about how easily information is controlled by focusing people's attention.
I had a paper published in a peer reviewed mathematical journal, which also happened to be an electronic journal.
When word of publication reached the sci.math newsgroup, the group erupted in fury and some of the people there sent emails to the editors of the math journal that published my paper claiming it was wrong.
The NEXT DAY the chief editor pulled my paper. He sent me an email claiming it was a mistake, and didn't allow me to defend.
The editors first left a blank spot, but to get it all to look right, like with pages, they finally settled on putting that the paper was withdrawn. I didn't withdraw it. They withdrew it.
Now then, if you believe that the protection against "crackpots" not actually being wrong, but being wronged legitimate researchers is that benchmark of publication, think again.
AT this point mathematicians have a system where there is no way that someone like me can break it, when even publication can just be dismissed.
THERE IS NO WAY with the current system to break through, if the group decides against you.
They break their own rules in areas that should be dramatic and it doesn't matter.
In the last few years, there have been major scandals at journals in other areas, but in mathematics, who cares?
A supposed crackpot gets a paper published, the journal yanks it, and nothing.
Oh yeah, and a few months later the journal died. It just quietly shut down.
If you are naive and believe that it died because my paper got through, then think again.
To try and get that same paper published I enlisted the help of a Ph.D in mathematics with a slew of his own published papers, who signed on as co-author and went to journal after journal to be quietly informed through back-channels that it wouldn't get through.
It was politics.
That is control. And if you don't think that kind of control doesn't teach lessons, then think again.
And if you wake up in a world where what you say doesn't matter, and governments have more power than you ever thought possible—like I NEVER thought mathematicians had this kind of power—then you sat like a frog as the water came to a boil, and lost your freedoms.
And you deserve it.
If that is news to you considering how much I talk about it, then think about how easily information is controlled by focusing people's attention.
I had a paper published in a peer reviewed mathematical journal, which also happened to be an electronic journal.
When word of publication reached the sci.math newsgroup, the group erupted in fury and some of the people there sent emails to the editors of the math journal that published my paper claiming it was wrong.
The NEXT DAY the chief editor pulled my paper. He sent me an email claiming it was a mistake, and didn't allow me to defend.
The editors first left a blank spot, but to get it all to look right, like with pages, they finally settled on putting that the paper was withdrawn. I didn't withdraw it. They withdrew it.
Now then, if you believe that the protection against "crackpots" not actually being wrong, but being wronged legitimate researchers is that benchmark of publication, think again.
AT this point mathematicians have a system where there is no way that someone like me can break it, when even publication can just be dismissed.
THERE IS NO WAY with the current system to break through, if the group decides against you.
They break their own rules in areas that should be dramatic and it doesn't matter.
In the last few years, there have been major scandals at journals in other areas, but in mathematics, who cares?
A supposed crackpot gets a paper published, the journal yanks it, and nothing.
Oh yeah, and a few months later the journal died. It just quietly shut down.
If you are naive and believe that it died because my paper got through, then think again.
To try and get that same paper published I enlisted the help of a Ph.D in mathematics with a slew of his own published papers, who signed on as co-author and went to journal after journal to be quietly informed through back-channels that it wouldn't get through.
It was politics.
That is control. And if you don't think that kind of control doesn't teach lessons, then think again.
And if you wake up in a world where what you say doesn't matter, and governments have more power than you ever thought possible—like I NEVER thought mathematicians had this kind of power—then you sat like a frog as the water came to a boil, and lost your freedoms.
And you deserve it.
# posted by James Harris @ 16:33 
