Posting theory work for review here

[mormonator_rm]

Hi,

Some months ago (its been a while) there was a thread here where people could post their work for peer review, and I was wondering if that still exists here, and if so where? Maybe one of the moderators can answer me...

The reason I ask is that I have a pdf I could post for my work which I have been invited to present at CPS-AAPT 2007 Spring Meeting by PSU-York and by the Vice President of the AAPT chapter. I would like some review from peers before I publish my theory work on scalar meson mixing and spectroscopy.

Thanks.

Regards,
Patrick

 

[ZapperZ]

We have the Independent Research forum for posting personal, unpublished theory.

Still, this is going to be a rather obvious question to ask, but why aren't you seeking feedback from your "peers"? I mean, I'm sure you would know someone rather well that is in the same field of study as you. Don't you have anyone who can give you any feedback?

Zz.

 

[mormonator_rm]

Well, I have received reviews from Dr. Mark Strikman and Dr. Abul Hasan, who have successfully pushed Penn State to invite me to the CPS-AAPT conference end of this month to present both a talk and a poster on my research, but I would like to get more opinions if possible. I figured the internet will be a great way to do this, and ideally I'd like to have it web-published on ArXiv, but I can't do that until I'm back at Penn State as a full-fledged student... So you see why I am trying this avenue?

 

[ZapperZ]

Er... actually, no.

I would rather get a feedback from someone I know and whose credentials are known, not some anonymous person on some public forum.

Zz.

 

[interested_learner]

I would strongly agree with ZapperZ. This forum is more for fun and homework type questions rather than really serious work. There are some folk like ZapperZ who are technically very solid and then there are many more like myself who's statements are (hmmm, I don't want to be too harsh...) let us say questionable.

 

[ZapperZ]

To be fair, there ARE quite a few advanced stuff that are discussed here. However, I believe that in those few cases, the participants already have been here long enough, and know enough about the expertise of some of the regulars on here. I can point out a few that I've been involved with in questions related to superconductivity alone. And I know of a few others who I would consider experts condensed matter/solid state physics here that would be able to carry a very high level of discussion in this area.

However, for someone who isn't familiar with PF and its members, I would find it rather strange to want a "review" of one's work from an unfamiliar medium made up of strangers that you don't know about. This is especially true when the work is highly specific in a particular area. You truly need someone who is very familiar with the intricate details of that subject to be able to get any form of a coherent feedback. And we're not talking just about the physics knowledge of that field. We're also talking about the awareness of the field of study. This person needs to know what has evolved in that field of study, what has been published recently, what direction is the community in that field is moving towards, etc.. In other words, someone who knows the state of knowledge of that particular area. This is because to get something published, especially in respected journal, a paper should not only be "interesting", it must also be important. These two are not always mutually inclusive. You need someone very familiar with that particular field of study to be able to make that decision.

Zz.

 

[Moonbear]

Just to clarify, there is a difference between discussing a topic with the knowledge that you might get some off-the-wall responses, and asking for a review of your work that might mislead you. The potential caveat I'll add of where this forum might prove useful for asking others here to comment on your work would be if you were writing something that needed to be understandable to the general public with an interest in science, but not necessarily with expertise in your area. If you've already had your scientific peers proofread for factual content, and need some help with making sure it's generally understandable, then you could find out quickly here if that was happening (though, I might recommend something like that be posted under general discussion rather than one of the actual science forums...and it would be a good idea to run that past a mentor on a case-by-case basis before posting it).

 

[mormonator_rm]

Well, maybe I should steer clear then. I was hoping to get some advice, mostly from the mentors, but you guys are right in pointing out that a lot of... well... weird people could try to comment bizarre things about my work that would not be helpful. But I could handle that ok, I guess. My main reason for doing this in the first place would be to get this work into the view of a large group of interested or qualified people in a pre-publication format. But you are right in saying that the majority of this group is clearly not qualified to comment on it. Is there a location here that only the mentors and a few others have access to where I could post and get a quick response?