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The Unpublishing of High Energy Physics

The Unpublishing of High Energy Physics. Travis Brooks SPIRES Scientific Databases Manager Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. What is SPIRES?. Bibliographic database of over half a million High Energy Physics(HEP)-related articles Citation searching and tracking for e-prints and journals

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The Unpublishing of High Energy Physics

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  1. The Unpublishing of High Energy Physics Travis Brooks SPIRES Scientific Databases Manager Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  2. What is SPIRES? • Bibliographic database of over half a million High Energy Physics(HEP)-related articles • Citation searching and tracking for e-prints and journals • First website in U.S. • Over 25,000 searches a day • Mirrors in 5 countries • http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/hep/ Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  3. Unpublished Research • I am a former HEP theorist so the words “unpublished research” call to mind immediately the eprint arXiv.org and its use in High Energy Physics (HEP), especially theory • HEP theory is a relatively tight community of over 1,000 scientists Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  4. hep-th (Pr)eprints: a Timeline • Prior to 1974 preprints sent by mail to select groups • 1974 SPIRES indexes preprints, allows more general distribution, retrieval • 1991 arXiv.org (then LANL) allows immediate universal electronic access to full-text of preprints • Preprints become eprints • Posted by author, no content review • Demise of all HEP journals predicted Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  5. Current use of hep-th • Studied hep-th from 1997-2001 • 17,000 papers • 13,000 eventually published in Journals • 1,000 in conferences • 3,000 remain eprints only Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  6. A New Type of Publication? • Over these 6 years hep-th has remained stable as a “mature” arXiv. • Over 90% of papers published in Phys. Rev. D were submitted to arXiv Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  7. Topics • How do HEP theorists use eprints? • From a statistical view • From a physics researcher’s view • Implications and reasons for success of eprints in HEP theory • Issues and opportunities in HEP experimental research Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  8. Cite Counts • Much research has been done using citations as a measure of eprint usage • Citations are important as a measure of what the scientists read • They are also a mark of quality • The author believes this work to be important enough to revise, extend or improve upon its ideas • Citations show where the action is Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  9. Cite Counts II • It has been seen that cites to HEP and related eprints from journals are high and rising (Brown 2001, Youngen 1998, others) • hep-th eprints are similar quality (as measured by cites from all sources) as average journals • Impact factor similar (Fabbrichesi and Montolli, 2001) Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  10. Time series of cites • Brody (2000) has examined the time series of citations within the arXiv • SPIRES allows citation tracking to an article through its life as an eprint, then as a journal article, making no distinction • This reflects the HEP scientific culture Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  11. Why Citations over time? • When (in a paper’s publication journey) does most citing occur? • Plot the number of citations a published hep-th article receives per month after its arXiv submission • 8000 published papers in sample • Includes citations from journal papers and arXiv papers (essentially the same set) Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  12. What do HEP theorists read? • Wherever the citation peak is, that is when the most exposure occurred • Citations show that the work was not only read, but taken seriously • If HEP theorists treat unpublished eprints differently than published, peer-reviewed papers: • One would expect to see higher citation rates after publication Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  13. They read eprints, not journals • Journal lag time roughly 6 months • Citation peak occurs after eprint release, not journal release • HEP Theorists don’t care whether an article is published or not when citing it • Invisible bump in citations at journal release Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  14. From a HEP theorist’s perspective • You read the arXiv papers to find out the latest scientific information • You base your work on what you read in the arXiv • Scientific priority given by arXiv time stamp, not journal submission date • You don’t notice if it is published Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  15. Peer Review? • This dependence upon the arXiv is not the loss of peer review • All hep-th articles are posted for all of your peers to see! • Put shoddy work out there for all to see, it is known • Post uninteresting incoherent ramblings, it is ignored Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  16. Why do they still publish? • Only a few articles remain unpublished forever • “For the record,” or more likely, “for the tenure/search committee” • Respected, tenured authors may not publish at all • Dr. Edward Witten has 9 papers with over 50 citations that are not published in conferences or journals Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  17. HEP theorist’s viewpoint • arXiv is for daily (journal like) communication • Journals are for “archival” value • Overheard about a paper not sent to hep-th: “He didn’t publish it, he just sent it to Phys. Rev. D” • Eprints are really published literature now Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  18. Why HEP Theory? • No proprietary/patent issues • Papers can be verified by hand, by any knowledgeable reader • Work is like a continuing dialog, each paper sparking new, creative ideas Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  19. Same basic style • Note that the basic publication style has not really changed • HEP Theory has not moved away from papers written by a few authors to more complex technology-enabled collaborations Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  20. HEP Experiment • HEP experiment has had more radical changes in working style • Pushing pre-publication scientific collaboration to new levels • Close to 1000 “authors” on a paper Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  21. Experimental Data • Worldwide data processing grid • World’s largest database (over 600TB) from one experiment • Unpublished, how is it maintained? • Will it persist as useful data? • Current solution is to publish 2 year summary paper of all HEP data • Web, db, and maybe raw data may change this Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

  22. Conclusions • hep-th eprints are an incredibly successful tool • Filling many traditional journal roles • Still a traditional publication model, simply a different medium • Opportunities for truly different uses of unpublished research in HEP experiment Travis Brooks-ASIST 2002

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