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*Regarding the initial question of whether the author being fringe affects the reliability of the source, "The word "source" as used on Wikipedia has three related meanings: the piece of work itself (the article, paper, document, book), the creator of the work (for example, the writer), and the publisher of the work (for example, The New York Times or Cambridge University Press). All three can affect reliability." As the overview states, "Articles should be based on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. This means that we only publish the opinions of reliable authors". I have no opinion on the reputation of the author for fact-checking and accuracy, leaving that to others to find evidence about, but he or she is clearly not a third party in this issue. The author can be expected to give a reliable account of his or her fringe views, and the source is reliable to that extent. Secondary sources would be required to show significance. The views would be appropriate in the article to the extent that they're significant to the topic, and if included should be presented in mainstream context to meet [[WP:WEIGHT]] which is another policy area. . . [[User:Dave souza|dave souza]], [[User talk:Dave souza|talk]] 20:39, 27 September 2010 (UTC) |
*Regarding the initial question of whether the author being fringe affects the reliability of the source, "The word "source" as used on Wikipedia has three related meanings: the piece of work itself (the article, paper, document, book), the creator of the work (for example, the writer), and the publisher of the work (for example, The New York Times or Cambridge University Press). All three can affect reliability." As the overview states, "Articles should be based on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. This means that we only publish the opinions of reliable authors". I have no opinion on the reputation of the author for fact-checking and accuracy, leaving that to others to find evidence about, but he or she is clearly not a third party in this issue. The author can be expected to give a reliable account of his or her fringe views, and the source is reliable to that extent. Secondary sources would be required to show significance. The views would be appropriate in the article to the extent that they're significant to the topic, and if included should be presented in mainstream context to meet [[WP:WEIGHT]] which is another policy area. . . [[User:Dave souza|dave souza]], [[User talk:Dave souza|talk]] 20:39, 27 September 2010 (UTC) |
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::How can an article published in a respected journal not be RS? Of course it is a reliable source, it does not matter who authored it. [[User:Marknutley|mark nutley]] ([[User talk:Marknutley|talk]]) 20:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC) |
::How can an article published in a respected journal not be RS? Of course it is a reliable source, it does not matter who authored it. [[User:Marknutley|mark nutley]] ([[User talk:Marknutley|talk]]) 20:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC) |
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I wish we could all keep proper perspective on issues like this, but I guess that's a forlorn hope. Can we all at least try to keep the game in the right ballpark? pointing out the obvious: |
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* Changing the temperature at which fusion occurs would be a major scientific advancement, if possible, and no scientist would sneer at the idea if someone managed to do it. |
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* The problematical aspects of the cold fusion debate occurred because a couple of scientists (whose names I forget) jumped to publication before they had all their facts in line, and then a whole bunch of 'popular press' and 'conspiracy theory' types jumped on the (unwittingly flawed) research. |
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* A scientist who can get an article published in a peer-reviewed journal is not dismissible simply because he's working in a topic area that has suffered setbacks. Scientists are constantly revisiting outmoded ideas to see if there's anything of value that new technology and methods can dig out of them. This is a normal part of the scientific process, and the fact that a team of other scientists reviewed the article and didn't find it wanting is sufficient indication that the research is acceptable scientific research. |
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* [[wp:Fringe]] only enters into this debate to keep Wikipedia editors from using that (perfectly reliable) scientific article to make claims about the topic or the state of the discipline that the article in no way can or would support. One article does not mean a revival of the concept, but just that there's still some scientific interest in the idea. It's just a matter of balance: does this article add anything of significance to the discussion without unduly skewing the perception of the topic? |
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that's where this discussion should be. --[[User_talk:Ludwigs2|<span style="color:darkblue;font-weight:bold">Ludwigs</span><span style="color:green;font-weight:bold">2</span>]] 21:00, 27 September 2010 (UTC) |
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== I need an approval on a reliable source on Russia as a superpower == |
== I need an approval on a reliable source on Russia as a superpower == |
Revision as of 21:00, 27 September 2010
Welcome — ask about reliability of sources in context! | |||||||||
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Does typical WP practice demand "plagiarism lite", and does it matter?
I would like to ask if others are sometimes uncomfortable with the following, and whether anyone has any practical suggestions about it. The most common scenario is something like this made-up case:- "this online review article looks well-written and well-sourced, great, but because RS debate is possible you should just use its handy bibliography for what you wanted to put in and not mention what led you there". Sound familiar?
Even when people then get copies of the articles in said bibliography (as per WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT) in many cases of course, what ends up being put into Wikipedia is structured and worded in ways which are inspired by the helpful author of the good but potentially questioned source. However, editors are effectively told not to say so. (Indeed many are presumably doing this the whole time and not talking about it.) Structuring of subject matter, simple observations, basic ways of explaining uncontroversial things, are often not "OR", raise no red flags, and their sources are hard to prove, so no one cares where they come from. But if such influences are so uncontroversial why is being honest about it considered such a no-no?
I was recently involved in an example where a sourced quotation which had been subject to some questionable RS debate was removed, and a re-written sentence openly intended to capture something in the old material was then inserted without sourcing. The wording change possibly improves the article, and is (and was!) obvious enough not to need special sourcing, but I don't feel good about the deliberate lack of attribution.
In academic literature one still sees authors who are correct enough to quote a source as something that they read in another source. Indeed this is often quite useful. In WP, it seems odd to see people on WP argue quite strongly sometimes that an apparently good source should be used indirectly and without attribution supposedly due to WP rules. In reality of course what people mean is that it is better to avoid a long RS debate about how the WP rules might apply, and to find a "path of least resistance".
Just trying to think why this is happening, it occurs to me that it is relevant that if you put words in an article without sourcing, then someone needs to actually look at the content and understand it before they can judge if they need more sourcing. Feedback is likely to be informed in such cases. OTOH, if you try very hard to mention all sources, you can expect "feedback" which is generalized and awkward to deal with: based not on any reading of the content but upon quick browsing for theoretical sourcing warning signs. Are the incentives wrong?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 13:17, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
- I'm not sure that I understand the question, so let me tell you what I'm hearing:
- You read Mary's paper.
- Mary's paper cites John's book.
- You read John's book.
- You write about the subject, and cite John's book.
- This is 100% acceptable: It is not necessary to document how you found John's book, or how many other sources you read before writing a sentence.
- What's not acceptable is to read Mary and then falsely claim that you read John. If you only read Mary, you must cite Mary. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:32, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
- I agree with WhatamIdoing. There's an unwritten rule when blogging to make sure to mention the intermediate steps (the ubiquitous "hat tip") but while that's of some importance to bloggers who are looking to take credit for their blogging, it is not an issue when assembling encyclopedic content. Having said that, if I felt that Mary's paper was the key to finding the info in John's book, I might try to find a way to cite Mary, if it could be done without compromising integrity.--SPhilbrickT 16:37, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
- I think the two responses are both looking at the most controversial type of example. I'll try doing a rewrite of WhatamIdoing's useful summary which is both based on real (but more messy) experience and also more designed to show how this can become more ethically dubious in more realistic and less extreme cases:
- You read Mary's paper. You consider it an RS.
- Mary's paper reviews works by 10 authors in a particular are of research, categorizes them in a neat uncontroversial way, and gives some neat comments about them which are not particularly controversial but handy nevertheless.
- You make an WP article citing Mary's paper as a source. You use Mary's neat way of summarizing the field, as well as some of her observations.
- Another editor arrives and a content debate ensues during which the editor claims Mary's paper is not a good enough RS. Let's say for example the field is a quite technical one and Mary published in a less technical journal (not a blog). Let's say the visiting editor cites WP:REDFLAG for example.
- After some circular discussions the two of you come to the practical compromise of getting around silly debate by simply pretending Mary is not a source, but instead the 50 authors. Direct quotes are simply reworded into new words that mean the same thing.
- When the visiting editor sees what the result looks like after simply deleting mention of Mary, they are satisfied there is now no sourcing problem because nothing stands out as the kind of thing you would tag as needing a source. Nothing adapted from Mary was controversial. (Yes, this raises the question of why redflag was incited, but in the real WP, people are not always that consistent and you have to get past an argument.)
- Let's say for the sake of making a clear example that you have actually read the 50, but the person who insisted on deleting mention of Mary has not and was basically a visitor to the article who noticed a perceived sourcing issue but does not really know the field.
- Let's say this editor is unable to debate what is really controversial in the field and so simply takes a hard line of saying redflag can be assumed to be relevant whenever an article in a less technical journal seems to be trying to review something in a more technical field.
- The implied defense of this compromise is that deleting mention of the source was OK because everything Mary wrote might have been arrived at by someone reading the 50 authors.
- It seems to me that if an academic or student got caught plagiarizing and gave this excuse it would be laughable?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:07, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
- It would be, because the academic wouldn't have to deal with drive-by editors. We do. Our work is the product of committee, so we must make compromises. If you want to soothe your conscience, you can remind yourself that we are quite different from academics or students, because they are expected to do original research. We're specifically forbidden to. An academic who writes what would be a Wikipedia featured article as a dissertation will rightly be criticised because it has no original work or at least analysis. All our work is required to be copied, and we are not allowed to enter our opinion. That's a much greater difference from academia. --GRuban (talk) 23:18, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
- Hmmm. But just considering WP's own statements "to itself" so to speak, isn't this also a case where we break our own "rules"? Consider WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT. Of course BTW I would not think this subject interesting if it was something that happened here and there at random. The pressures and incentives (including the way things like this noticeboard can work, or be worked, sometimes) appear to me to create a positive tendency towards this particular type of compromise at the expense of principles like WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT. I'd even go one step further and hypothesize that there are probably people who have learnt from the same pressures simply to avoid sourcing as much as possible, as a way to avoid drawing attention from drive-by editors in the first place.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:35, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
- I'll call your hypothesis and raise: there are definitely people who have learnt not to edit the Wikipedia at all due to its multitudinous slings and arrows, and this one is by no means the most painful. But ... where does this lead? If you have a specific workable suggestion, please propose it. Just "say where you got it" doesn't work, because the article doesn't have just one owner/author, there is just the amorphous Wikipedia community, that can edit it at any time, and often do. Just because editor A got the information from source Bar by reading about it in Foo which references Bar, doesn't mean editor B can't get the same information from Bar directly. Does that mean that editor B isn't allowed to delete the reference to Foo, even though Foo isn't a reliable source, and the article now contains no information that directly depends on Foo, just because someone else who once edited the article once read Foo? --GRuban (talk) 22:56, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
- People leaving WP no longer affect WP. I think you are missing the point that I am noting cases where WP accepted habits seem to be pushing people to break WP's own stated policy, on WP. Your scenario section seems to amount to saying that no one will normally notice the plagiarism?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:10, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
- No, merely that I don't see a solution in which we can credit everyone on the chain of references. The problem is that our articles don't have a single author, so there isn't a single chain of where that author got it. "Say where you got it", doesn't mean what you think it does, it's the plural "you", meaning any editor who has ever edited the article, not the singular "you" meaning any one of them in particular. Let's look at your example from the other perspective. Joe read Mary's paper, which cites 50 sources, and then read the 50 sources. Frank read the 50 sources directly, he never saw Mary's paper. Should the way our article should be written really depend on whether Frank or Joe got to it first? Surely not, our articles don't have original and secondary authors.
- Or let's actually quote WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT: "For example, a webpage may provide information that the page's author attributes to a book. Unless you examine the book yourself, your source is the webpage, not the book...It is often better to read the original source material yourself, in which case you can simply cite the original source." That means that, much as it may seem unfair to Mary, we don't cite her, we cite the 50 directly. --GRuban (talk) 20:09, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- No. Please look at the example as I explained it. I am talking about cases where people knowingly used the secondary source also, and not just its bibliography.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 08:49, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- People leaving WP no longer affect WP. I think you are missing the point that I am noting cases where WP accepted habits seem to be pushing people to break WP's own stated policy, on WP. Your scenario section seems to amount to saying that no one will normally notice the plagiarism?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:10, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
- I'll call your hypothesis and raise: there are definitely people who have learnt not to edit the Wikipedia at all due to its multitudinous slings and arrows, and this one is by no means the most painful. But ... where does this lead? If you have a specific workable suggestion, please propose it. Just "say where you got it" doesn't work, because the article doesn't have just one owner/author, there is just the amorphous Wikipedia community, that can edit it at any time, and often do. Just because editor A got the information from source Bar by reading about it in Foo which references Bar, doesn't mean editor B can't get the same information from Bar directly. Does that mean that editor B isn't allowed to delete the reference to Foo, even though Foo isn't a reliable source, and the article now contains no information that directly depends on Foo, just because someone else who once edited the article once read Foo? --GRuban (talk) 22:56, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
- Hmmm. But just considering WP's own statements "to itself" so to speak, isn't this also a case where we break our own "rules"? Consider WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT. Of course BTW I would not think this subject interesting if it was something that happened here and there at random. The pressures and incentives (including the way things like this noticeboard can work, or be worked, sometimes) appear to me to create a positive tendency towards this particular type of compromise at the expense of principles like WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT. I'd even go one step further and hypothesize that there are probably people who have learnt from the same pressures simply to avoid sourcing as much as possible, as a way to avoid drawing attention from drive-by editors in the first place.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:35, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
- It would be, because the academic wouldn't have to deal with drive-by editors. We do. Our work is the product of committee, so we must make compromises. If you want to soothe your conscience, you can remind yourself that we are quite different from academics or students, because they are expected to do original research. We're specifically forbidden to. An academic who writes what would be a Wikipedia featured article as a dissertation will rightly be criticised because it has no original work or at least analysis. All our work is required to be copied, and we are not allowed to enter our opinion. That's a much greater difference from academia. --GRuban (talk) 23:18, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
- I think the two responses are both looking at the most controversial type of example. I'll try doing a rewrite of WhatamIdoing's useful summary which is both based on real (but more messy) experience and also more designed to show how this can become more ethically dubious in more realistic and less extreme cases:
- I agree with WhatamIdoing. There's an unwritten rule when blogging to make sure to mention the intermediate steps (the ubiquitous "hat tip") but while that's of some importance to bloggers who are looking to take credit for their blogging, it is not an issue when assembling encyclopedic content. Having said that, if I felt that Mary's paper was the key to finding the info in John's book, I might try to find a way to cite Mary, if it could be done without compromising integrity.--SPhilbrickT 16:37, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
I'm inclined to agree with the OP, and this is a problem that many WP editors try to dance around. Time and again, after I've put work into an article, using good sources and working to achieve a balanced, reliable text, on my won or together with others here, I run into editors (or they approach me) who are a complete PITA because they pretend that every single statement - whatever kind it is, even if it's uncontested or so obvious no one has ever needed to phrase it as a fact in print - must be shown to have been taken raw from a "reliable source" (however they define that) and that any attempt to rephrase, explain or bring out why something is important within the context of the subject makes it "original research" and inadmissible. In their view, the way to keep WP clean and reliable is to insist that every article should be a patchwork of statements that are vouched for, or verified/made falsifiable and controllable one by one, by the external source that says, or implies that "statement (p) is true".and put the citation for (p) in a footnote.
In reality that doesn't solve the issues, and real scientiests, scholars and encyclopaedic writers do not stop at simply saying a certain source has generic validity all the time because of what it is (reliable, an "honoured newspaper", a high-rank university etc). If a statement or a line of reasomning comes under scrutiny, it's those statements that should be discussed, not whatever source they were quoted by and the generic reliability of that source (which is most often not the ultimate source, anyway). Real encyclopaedias such as the Britannica are full of statements whose underpinnings are a swarm of minor facts, theories and inferences: the real voucher is the reputation of the guy who wrote the article and his knowledge, because unlike the average WP editor he risks something if he puts blatantly false, faulty or overstated stuff into his text. His colleagues might detect it and ruin his reputation. If any Jack Bass writes "Barack Obama is a practising muslim /source S1/ and he was born in Kenya /source S2, perhaps obamacrimes.com/" all he risks is an edit war and eventually, if he is really blunt, having his account blocked. The next day, or even before, he may open another account and keep on writing. So a standard view of what would make current WP policy says WP editing is a kind of collecting of raw facts that are sort of plagiarized, openly or thinly veiled, but in my view, and according to scientific standards, that isn't enough to make the outcome reliable.
If the idea here is to provide texts that are as reliable and s valid as a good paper encyclopadia, then it's just not helpful to pretend that this can be achieved simply by laying a million small "directly sourced statements" side by side but avoiding any discussion of those statements as such, and any attempts to bring them together. But if the hyperdeletionists who insist that's the way keep up their good work, the only way to avoid being clobbered with "original research!" seems to be to blatantly plagiarize whatever you can get accepted as a "good and reliable source".
Of course, sometimes this doesn't happen. It's just as pointed out here: sometimes the plagiarizing/rewriting thing is more discreet but it still sticks to rephrasing whatever you can find and which seems to vaguely fit with preconceived ideas of what should be in the article, "what it's like". Or you simply write a good article (or improve an existing one) according to your own solid knowledge - the article you'd have written for the Britannica if you'd have been asked to - and sprinkle it with some references although you know that it would be impossible to nail down every single statement, every nuance of the text, to a previous rock hard source. You add a list if books you know are central to the area. And then yoiu hope not to have some 15-year old newbie running onto it and deleting half of it, saying "not sourced" and "whattya mean by that? POV!!" (RS and citation discussion on purely generic terms). I find this unsatisfactory, but I'm not sure there's a way out of it as long as the Wiki bureaucracy insists on that every John Blow is allowed to write about everything but they must only parrot what one or another "reliable source" (in reality, there can never be an indisputable solid list of such sources, and what counts as "good sources" is in drift from article to article) has had to say in exactly those same words on the subject.Strausszek (talk) 04:41, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- I think your remark about "generic" good sourcing and good sourcing which context relative is a very important point. It is already how WP policy is phrased, but this is widely ignored by some "sub-cultures" within WP. If it were not so widely ignored, then it would probably help reduce many types of problems including the one I have described above where a source's name is deliberately deleted, even though what it taken from it is considered OK without sourcing. If sourcing questions were always properly handled in a context relative way such cases would be immediately recognized as simply illogical.
- OTOH, I am not sure my point if fully being understood:-
- This is not just a hidden problem. There are cases where you can see quite clearly on the talk page how people have been told to remove a citation but not whatever useful ideas were drawn from it. There must be cases which are hidden also, but right now it is something people do proudly in the open. That's what makes this kind of case "interesting". People think this is demanded by WP. It would not have been worthwhile to post hear about cases everyone agrees to be wrong.
- I would also say that it is not the newbies who cause the most of these problems, but rather experienced editors who are more willing and able to confidently claim that this is the way WP should work. In general I think experienced editors sometimes exaggerate about the amount of problems that come from newbies. This is I think something which has changed over time. The minority of newbies causing real problems seem to be picked up much quicker these days.
- Thanks for comments. My understanding is that basically WP as a community does not yet think much about this particular point. OTOH, if everyone would remember that sourcing should always be discussed in a context the problem might well reduce a lot.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 08:49, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Yes, I've run into this kind of crummy behaviour too. We're discussing a few different facets now, so here's a few outlines of the varied issues:
- cropping out a section that contained valid points without bothering to discuss the content, the new editor only throwing in a quick argument to the effect that the stated source is not RS, or that he has an RS statement himself, one which he adds inline notes to. he then claims this new source trumps what you or other people have written, adn your sources, and argues that his new text can only be contested or modified by finding a fresh RS statement to contest his. In reality, what he's written is largely his own ideas and the RS support is just a token.
- Yes, I've run into this kind of crummy behaviour too. We're discussing a few different facets now, so here's a few outlines of the varied issues:
- the new editor removes a section even though it has several good sources, saying "what those sources say can only be verified (shown to be finally true) with complete certainty by asking person X, or by going to archive documents. But those methods can't be rapidly checked by every WP user, so we must remove the entire section". This confuses two senses of verifiability - verifiable as in "demonstrably and finally true" (e.g. a person's birth date or education from valid archive documents, or their presence at a given time and place, or sometime during a certain span of time, from photographs that have been shown to be genuine) and "possible to assert and put to the test with the help of sources". The latter really is falsifiability (Popper) from accepted sources or authorities, but because many statements on WP are "interim true" and used to support more statemnets in turn, people confuse those two senses of 'verifiability'.
- Cutting every instance of the use of a certain word on the grounds that it is "vague" and "can't be defined properly" except in a very narrow way, the way user X likes and which he claims is the Wiki way to define it. The other day I saw a user who had been running about masses of film articles and cut every instance where the words "surreaiist film" or "surrealist cinema" - meaning, inspired by surrealist aesthetics or strikingly relying on subconscious or juxtaposed disparate images - were used. In the process he cut a good deal of useful, sourced and relevant content too, but his only argument was that "surrealist film" is a dummy concept, except when it relates to the early French surrealist film makers. There's no way of knowing how much he knew of the subject: by avoiding discussion he kept off having anyone find out.
- the content of a section or a few lines is largely based on a few sources quoted and fully summarized with page references by the main book used at hand by user A - an intermediiate source. user A footnotes the WP text with those ultimate sources and their page refs, but also paraphrases the book that he found them in. User B comes in and is hostile to the intermediate source, so he removes the entire bit saying it's vitiated by an unreliable source. not bothering to discuss the value of the statements that were culled, of what the WP article bit in question said, or whether the article is helped by cutting that bit or just becomes less coherent. Or even prone to misunderstanding. In the really bad cases, and I've seen those, user B wants to encourage misunderstanding in a certain direction, but without having to put the cards on the table.
- Working to keep a certain line of thought out of an article, or a bunch of interrelated articles, by insisting on very high demands for when a source can be classed as "reliable" and denying anyone the option to use sources that support an opposing view, or claim such a view exists, saying they are non-notable sources, polemical sources etc. Most often this is done bt a gang of people who have taken it upon themselves to keep articles in line to their views, but I've seen it done by indefatigable single persons too.
- Newbies or experienced but determined veterans? Well, I've seen these kinds of edit turf war and control strategies both from people with tens of thousands of edits, and sometimes it seems with good academic credentials, and from people who are complete newcomers and who don't really know the dough they're trying to knead. But both kinds can be just as unwilling to discuss what they do. In the bad cases, they just crop away and add their own material, without any prior discussion, claiming that they're executing 'sanctified WP policy'. In reality, they are claiming that the principles they find are WP laws, not guidelines, which cuts the space for any discussion that would take the context or interpretation problems into account. And quite often, too, the limits of which sources are RS are completely different from one article to the next, or from one subculture or editing gang to another.
- Essentially, sometimes RS is whatever you can get classed as an RS. I've been trying to make people understand that an op-ed comment or a lighthearted, provocative column in a big morning newspaper, or a tv interview with some journalist or politician, isn't necessarily as reliable as the news reporting of that paper or tv channel, - the standards from the paper are simply not the same for different kinds of material, and a column or an interview isn't meant to be an indisputable lecture. But if people are committed enough to keep a certain angle out of an article, or to avoid criticism over blunt editing, they tend to resort to "it must be true because I read it in such and such newspaper" or "because I heard it on this tv channel", and if you reply 'that the statement they quote and lean on is overstated, or false, or it in turn obviously relies on a partisan train oif thought, a partisan definition of something supporting it - or that it's simply illogical - then that criticism is ranked as "original research" as long as you don't come up with another notable source who has said what you said (your discussion of the state of reesearch and knowledge on the matter, and of the sources and writers invoked) in exactly the same terms. Of course this is often impossible, or it would take a hopelessly long time, prowling dozens of books to come up with citations matching your critical points, and some of what you end up with might be in a language the other guy doesn't understand and he and his editing buddies will then discard it. That kind of thing means dumbing down any discussion and unfortunately it's quite frequent on Wikipedia talk pages. Strausszek (talk) 12:00, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Yes, I'm confident we've all seen similar things. Not sure these are all facets of exactly the same problem. Some are related. Many have in common that they are areas where judgement is required, and as such are "natural" places for arguments to happen - something we'll always have. I think for practical reasons we have to be careful about bracketing problems based on similar attitudes or intentions, as bad intentions can cause all kinds of effects. As I mentioned above, the main reason for posting on this noticeboard was a particular type of behavior which, whatever the intentions, appears to be openly encouraged and proclaimed as the way WP works. Many of the other examples are the sorts of things people do while claiming to be aiming at one thing but apparently aiming at another - again something we'll always have to some extent. The problem I am talking about is one that people do not make any effort to hide. It might be related to the fact that it often seems even on this noticeboard, which I've taken to watching lately, that in RS discussions people make no effort to say anything about the context a source might be being used for.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:45, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Yup, the most stubborn editors are not often interested in discussing the argumentative or historical context of the statements they pick up. Neither in their original place, nor where they get quoted and reused. Sometimes they don't want to discuss with you at all, except from a hilltop. They tend to take everything they find at face value, and of course the most histrionic comments and most striking statements will often be the ones that are given pride of place. Absolutely agree.Strausszek (talk) 15:31, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Yes, I'm confident we've all seen similar things. Not sure these are all facets of exactly the same problem. Some are related. Many have in common that they are areas where judgement is required, and as such are "natural" places for arguments to happen - something we'll always have. I think for practical reasons we have to be careful about bracketing problems based on similar attitudes or intentions, as bad intentions can cause all kinds of effects. As I mentioned above, the main reason for posting on this noticeboard was a particular type of behavior which, whatever the intentions, appears to be openly encouraged and proclaimed as the way WP works. Many of the other examples are the sorts of things people do while claiming to be aiming at one thing but apparently aiming at another - again something we'll always have to some extent. The problem I am talking about is one that people do not make any effort to hide. It might be related to the fact that it often seems even on this noticeboard, which I've taken to watching lately, that in RS discussions people make no effort to say anything about the context a source might be being used for.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:45, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
Reference "Mary" as a general reference or add her work to the "Further reading" section. Inline citations are not the only acceptable way to acknowledge sources. It's something editors have apparently forgotten with the trend on Wikipedia to drench articles with inline cites. Lambanog (talk) 10:15, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Might just be me but I would never think of anything in the Further Reading section of an article as somehow an implied source, and indeed it is often a very mixed bag and hardly connected to the article? I agree that one effect of trends like the ones I am describing is "drenching".--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:30, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- If we are closely reproducing the style, order, or organization of Mary's work in our article, it is likely that a citation of Mary's publication would be appropriate. In such a circumstance plagiarism looms large as a concern (and I feel that she should be credited on that basis alone), but there are other, Wikipedia-specific issues that apply. In the absence of a reference to Mary's published guidance, how are we sure that the list of sources and statements present in our article are not the result of cherry-picking among primary sources? Without the guidance of suitable secondary sources and review articles, we are at risk of presenting works of original synthesis. In the alternative, if Mary's original work wouldn't qualify as a proper reliable source on its own, then is it inappropriate to rely on it to structure our article because it represents original research and synthesis?
- Obviously there will be specific circumstances governing each individual article and each individual 'Mary', but if all of one of our article's (or article section's) references are being drawn from a single review article then that should raise some flags to say that citation might be necessary. In grayer areas, we might be able to get by with a more general entry in a 'Further reading' section, but that's an ugly hack — it really ought to be under a 'Works consulted' or 'Bibliography' heading. Perhaps a subheading within the 'References' section dealing with review articles? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:33, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- The example I gave covered the details quite specifically. You appear to be implying that we can ignore the example I gave because it was impossible? You appear to be suggesting that there would be something else controversial about the material taken over from Mary, and therefore there would always be some justification for one editor deliberately and clearly demanding that other editors remove mention of her, but still use her. It was realistic, I can assure you. People are not as logical as you think. Just because material is non-controversial and even desired in an article does not mean that the same people who want it in the article will not also want the source covered up because of some other "issue".--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:28, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- You seem to be reading things I didn't say into my words. Without knowing the specific article or references involved I cannot make a final pronouncement, but my comment essentially agreed with you that we should cite 'Mary'; why are you biting my head off? Yes, I offered some more general comments, principles, and guidance — if you didn't want general discussion then you shouldn't have opened this thread with a hypothetical case. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 19:31, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- My sincere apologies. I certainly did not mean to bit your head off. My above post is how I understood you. I used words like "appear to be implying" because I was not entirely sure.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:51, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- You seem to be reading things I didn't say into my words. Without knowing the specific article or references involved I cannot make a final pronouncement, but my comment essentially agreed with you that we should cite 'Mary'; why are you biting my head off? Yes, I offered some more general comments, principles, and guidance — if you didn't want general discussion then you shouldn't have opened this thread with a hypothetical case. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 19:31, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- The example I gave covered the details quite specifically. You appear to be implying that we can ignore the example I gave because it was impossible? You appear to be suggesting that there would be something else controversial about the material taken over from Mary, and therefore there would always be some justification for one editor deliberately and clearly demanding that other editors remove mention of her, but still use her. It was realistic, I can assure you. People are not as logical as you think. Just because material is non-controversial and even desired in an article does not mean that the same people who want it in the article will not also want the source covered up because of some other "issue".--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:28, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
Blender Magazine as a source
Is blender magazine a valid source? They had some criticism of Emerson Lake and Palmer which I would like to include in which they named ELP as the second worse band of all time. ELP has been a much criticized band but there is no indication of that from ELP's page here.--UhOhFeeling (talk) 23:18, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
- Anyone? Buehler?--UhOhFeeling (talk) 14:59, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
- Is there anybody out there?--UhOhFeeling (talk) 00:55, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
- From Terms & Conditions:
- "Dennis does not endorse or control the Submitted Content delivered to this Site, and Dennis has no obligation to monitor such Submitted Content. As such, Dennis does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of any such Submitted Content."
- If the criticism is "Submitted Content", then it's unequivocally not a reliable source. Given that the site itself is published in blog format and has no statement of editorial process for the rest of its content, I'd think it extremely unlikely that it meets WP:RS anyway. --RexxS (talk) 03:05, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
- From Terms & Conditions:
- Is there anybody out there?--UhOhFeeling (talk) 00:55, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
http://www.blender.com/lists/67198/50-worst-artists-in-music-history.html so this article is no good?--UhOhFeeling (talk) 01:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
FYI there are many notable and respected authors who contributed to the article including
Jonah Weiner - Currently a music critic for slate, John Harris (critic), J.D. Considine , John Aizlewood writer for The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard and The Guardian who regularly appears on the BBC, Clark Collis a writer for Entertainment Weekly, Rob Kemp a contributing editor to Men's Health and others.
I would say with this stable of authors this article should be considered a valid source.--UhOhFeeling (talk) 01:31, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Anyone? Any thoughts?--UhOhFeeling (talk) 03:14, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
HELLOOOOOOOO?--UhOhFeeling (talk) 16:14, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- The stable of authors does sound imposing. I'm not sure if the list itself is supposed to be reviewed magazine content, or "submitted content", but if it comes from those authors, it seem reliable, per the part of WP:RS that says "established expert on the topic of the article whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications". --GRuban (talk) 20:19, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- I didn't check the author's credentials but it doesn't appear to be user-submitted content. I would say that this qualifies as a reliable source. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:53, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- I agree that it does not appear user-submitted. The authors all have strong credentials. Thanks for your help.--UhOhFeeling (talk) 22:02, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- I didn't check the author's credentials but it doesn't appear to be user-submitted content. I would say that this qualifies as a reliable source. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:53, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
Five Gateways genealogy site
This URL and some variations have been added to many of the Roosevelt family articles, as an external link:
- http://sites.google.com/site/fivegateways/alphabetical-index-r/roosevelt Five Gateways Genealogy
To me, it looks like a self-published source, with fair scholarship but no author named, and all the cites piled up at the bottom. The person who publishes says "This site is new, and is being worked on currently. Over the next few months and hopefully many years, it will grow to encompass summary genealogies from my, now rather large, collection. ... I have no intention to charge for access to this site, either now or in the future." I'd like to believe that this source is good, but it does not have inline citations. Binksternet (talk) 07:31, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- It's the personal website of a Swedish genealogy hobbyist, Mattias Engdahl, who has compiled the information on the site from secondary sources. Most of the sources he has used are very dated, and do not adhere to current genealogical standards. The site is a tertiary source, at best, using original research. Does that meet WP:RS? ProGene (talk) 14:47, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
I have identified one of the sources used by Five Gateways as The Scots Peerage edited by Sir James Balfour Paul published in 1910. My personal research has shown that this book contains at least one substantial error which the website has repeated. I am not treating this book as reliable.Writer42 (talk) 19:49, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- Without wishing to say this is an argument for the source, it should be judged here based on apparent verifiability, not apparent truth. I think all large genealogical sources contain many mistakes, as indeed do most large works full stop (dictionaries, encyclopedias etc) but of course they are often reliable for the purposes of WP. It is not generally up to Wikipedians to judge sources based on their own checking of how good they are or else we would have endless circular arguments.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:15, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Whether the 1910 book has an error an whether it is repeated on the web site has no relevance to the reliability of the site. WP:RS is not about the truth but about basing statements on sources. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 08:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
"Five Gateways" genealogical site
- Originally added as a new section at the bottom, and then combined with the existing section. Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:14, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
I'd like to see some discussion about whether this site can be considered a reliable source. An editor had been adding it to articles as an EL, which I thought was OK (although at least one editor objected to it), but the editor has now started using it as a ref, so it would be helpful to know its status. Beyond My Ken (talk) 21:36, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- Hmm...just from the look of it, I was going to say unreliable, but it does state on the specific pages the book source from where the information was retrieved. Because of that...I might say that it is reliable, though with a grain of salt. SilverserenC 21:45, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
Did you notice that there already was a query about "Five Gateways" on this board? You might want to look further up the page and read the query and response there. (My take: It would not be considered reliable by any responsible genealogist.) ProGene (talk) 22:59, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- No, I didn't notice that. I'm going to combine the two sections together. Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:12, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- Except that the sources for each name are reliable. Of course, it would be better to directly have those sources, but this, as a tertiary source, still works. SilverserenC 23:06, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- How do you know they're reliable? Most of the sources are over 100 years old. Genealogical research from that time period did not adhere to any standards, with the result that much of the work from that time IS unreliable. ProGene (talk) 13:47, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- How do we know anything is reliable? On WP we just aim to report what the outside world says, and that means that the answer is that we check whether the source is treated as reliable by people who should know. (That is of course not always an easy thing to discuss either.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:15, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- And, as I've already said, professional genealogists do not consider "Five Gateways" or any other personal website reliable. ProGene (talk) 17:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- No, I must have missed it when you gave any explanation about that? The only similar comment I see is where you said that this was your "take". That's my point. Is this source used outside of WP?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:17, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- See my comment from 23 September in the original thread above, where I elaborated a bit more. I don't know whether other sites use the "Five Gateways" site as a source, but it does not meet current genealogical standards[1], which require that information from compilations (all the sources used by the site are compilations) be verified with original records. Among reputable genealogists, compilations are considered clues only, not reliable sources. ProGene (talk) 19:29, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- OK, I may have missed your earlier posting but I am still not entirely clear on how your argument works. As a genealogical researcher doing original work, it is of course important to eventually look at primary documents. Here on WP we are not conducting original research, and to some extent we even try to avoid being over-reliance on primary sources (because it is not the aim that WP becomes the place for cutting edge debate). We try to report what others say, so compiled sources are pretty good for us as long as they are good ones. (For example, Burkes is full of problems too, and I've argued that it should be used very carefully here, but realistically I know people will not accept much criticism of it here because it is so respected.) So the question about a secondary source would not be whether it is a good primary source like a good genealogist would want when doing their own original work, but rather whether good genealogists might consider it a reliable compilation. I think another important point will be whether it explains its primary sources fairly well also (unlike Burkes and similar works) because this allows verification. --Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:43, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Concur with Andrew Lancaster, I could not have said it any better. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 08:39, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Maybe to respond to myself though, after reading back over it, perhaps the concern here can be expressed as being that this source is a compilation based on secondary sources, and old ones which did not cite their primary sources (such as perhaps Burkes-style ones). In practice though, if the old secondary sources are widely cited and used, and this tertiary source seems a verifiable summary of those, we can not really delete material sourced from it without expecting occasional arguments. I think we would certainly be justified to claim in some cases that such a source might not be the strongest one, but it does not sound like a source bad enough to say that editors should never be able to use it?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 09:13, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I was not saying that WP should use original sources. I was saying that WP should use sources that are considered reliable within their field. The "Five Gateways" site is not considered reliable within the field of genealogy. There are several reasons for that. One is that the site is derivative - it is a homemade copy derived from information contained in other derivative sources. We have no way to know what errors, omissions, or misinterpretations crept in when the website was being created. Second is that the compilations being used by the site are themselves not considered reliable by genealogists. Most were compiled over 100 years ago. The state of genealogy research and genealogy standards at that time was primitive. Genealogists relied on hand-me down information, rumor, scribblings on the back of envelopes, and other highly questionable sources for the compilations that were created. These "old secondary sources" are not "widely cited and used" by reputable American genealogists. (Genealogists in other countries may have other standards.) A third reason WP should not consider the "Five Gateways" site reliable is that it's simply a personal website. The creator is just a hobbyist genealogist who has no known credentials in the field of genealogy. Does this make my reasoning clearer? ProGene (talk) 14:22, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Yep, I understood you are not arguing for use of original sources only. It is a little more subtle than that. First let me say I am not taking a "pro" position as such. My point above was purely addressing weak points in your presentation of the case against the source. You seem to argue that the reason this source fails as a source is only because it does NOT use sources of the type a professional researcher would use during their research. As pointed out above, your position is understandable, but in reality it means people can't use Burkes Peerage for example, and in reality that won't fly because is notable, has a reputation, and all that. In practice in a case like this on WP I think it will come down to whether people wanting to use this source can show that it is taken seriously by serious people outside WP. If they can do that then the objections you have raised are not necessarily valid for WP. You are saying that they can't do that?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:48, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I was not saying that WP should use original sources. I was saying that WP should use sources that are considered reliable within their field. The "Five Gateways" site is not considered reliable within the field of genealogy. There are several reasons for that. One is that the site is derivative - it is a homemade copy derived from information contained in other derivative sources. We have no way to know what errors, omissions, or misinterpretations crept in when the website was being created. Second is that the compilations being used by the site are themselves not considered reliable by genealogists. Most were compiled over 100 years ago. The state of genealogy research and genealogy standards at that time was primitive. Genealogists relied on hand-me down information, rumor, scribblings on the back of envelopes, and other highly questionable sources for the compilations that were created. These "old secondary sources" are not "widely cited and used" by reputable American genealogists. (Genealogists in other countries may have other standards.) A third reason WP should not consider the "Five Gateways" site reliable is that it's simply a personal website. The creator is just a hobbyist genealogist who has no known credentials in the field of genealogy. Does this make my reasoning clearer? ProGene (talk) 14:22, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Maybe to respond to myself though, after reading back over it, perhaps the concern here can be expressed as being that this source is a compilation based on secondary sources, and old ones which did not cite their primary sources (such as perhaps Burkes-style ones). In practice though, if the old secondary sources are widely cited and used, and this tertiary source seems a verifiable summary of those, we can not really delete material sourced from it without expecting occasional arguments. I think we would certainly be justified to claim in some cases that such a source might not be the strongest one, but it does not sound like a source bad enough to say that editors should never be able to use it?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 09:13, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- See my comment from 23 September in the original thread above, where I elaborated a bit more. I don't know whether other sites use the "Five Gateways" site as a source, but it does not meet current genealogical standards[1], which require that information from compilations (all the sources used by the site are compilations) be verified with original records. Among reputable genealogists, compilations are considered clues only, not reliable sources. ProGene (talk) 19:29, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- No, I must have missed it when you gave any explanation about that? The only similar comment I see is where you said that this was your "take". That's my point. Is this source used outside of WP?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:17, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- And, as I've already said, professional genealogists do not consider "Five Gateways" or any other personal website reliable. ProGene (talk) 17:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- How do we know anything is reliable? On WP we just aim to report what the outside world says, and that means that the answer is that we check whether the source is treated as reliable by people who should know. (That is of course not always an easy thing to discuss either.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:15, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- I did some research while filling out Roosevelt family and creating bios for a lot of the minor notables in the family, and as a result have PDFs for probably most of the secondary sources cited by this website:
- There are also a couple full-view Google Book links in the further reading section of Roosevelt family.--Michael WhiteT·C 15:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- How do you know they're reliable? Most of the sources are over 100 years old. Genealogical research from that time period did not adhere to any standards, with the result that much of the work from that time IS unreliable. ProGene (talk) 13:47, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
Online article by Peter Chopelas
Is this article also considered a valid resource? [2]
Here is a church website giving commentary on the article.[3]
- "An early draft of this article was edited by Archpriest Thomas Hopko, retired dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (OCA), and this final copy has the approval of His Grace Lazar Puhalo (OCA), noted theologian, retired archbishop of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and abbot of New Ostrog Monastery near Vancouver, British Columbia."
The article also appears to confirm what is on the church dioceses webpage states as the church teaching on the subject here. [4] The OCA website is maintained by the editor of the original article Thomas Hopko who is also a main editor on the Orthodox Study bible. LoveMonkey (talk) 19:15, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- I would say that the article is not a reliable source, just because of the website it is printed on and the lack of ability to verify the writer's truthfulness. The Preachers Institute appears to be, while slightly exclusive, still fairly inclusive in who it allows in, as long as you have written sermons and things and proved yourself to them. So I wouldn't trust that either. If you want to go with the information, unless you have an alternative source, I would say stick with the primary information on the OCA website until something better is found. SilverserenC 22:09, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- OK will do. Thanks Again. LoveMonkey (talk) 12:28, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
Does "fringe author" affect Reliable Source criteria?
Disclosure: I'm COI on the topic I'll bring, and I also contributed to the editing of the subject paper and am mentioned in it. I'm asking this to verify my impression of Wikipedia policy and guidelines as they apply to alleged "fringe" topics.
I pointed, on Talk:Cold fusion, to a very recent secondary source, a review of the field of Cold fusion, published under peer-review at Naturwissenschaften, perhaps the most notable of many secondary sources that have appeared in mainstream publications on the topic in recent years, after the 2004 U.S. Department of Energy recommended further research and publication, all of which may have reversed the presumption, previously properly held, that Cold fusion was Fringe science, as distinct from emerging science. No "negative" reviews under peer review have appeared since then.
An editor commented on the author as not "independent or neutral."[5].
My understanding is that we depend on independent publishers, to filter out fringe views and not allow them to be presented as being acceptable to the mainstream. Naturwissenschaften is solidly mainstream, published by Springer-Verlag, which is also solidly mainstream. The "neutrality" that we depend on is that of the peer reviewers and/or publishers, not the authors. The publishers will not, presumably, allow a fringe author to trample neutrality, for their reputation is at stake. If they are going to present a view that is fringe, for some reason, it will be tagged as controversial, not presented as a neutral review.
There is no doubt that at one time Cold fusion was widely considered fringe or even "pathological science." However, scientific consensus can change. We depend on mainstream publishers for determining what is "reliable source," and especially the publishers of peer-reviewed scientific journals, and most especially those journals when they publish secondary source reviews, which is our gold standard.
My concern here is the allegation that an author is biased, fringe, with the implication that everything the author writes is therefore suspect, even if accepted by a major mainstream journal, under peer review, as a review of the field. Do we expect that a review of the field would be written by someone unfamiliar with it? This attitude toward fringe is circular, for we determine what is fringe by preponderance of reliable sources, and if we, ipso facto, exclude any "fringe source," based on the POV it supposedly represents, or the identity of the author, we make it impossible to neutrally determine the actual balance.
I am aware of 15 reviews of the field, published in mainstream journals since 2005, see Wikiversity:Cold fusion/Recent sources. Their conclusions have generally been excluded from our article on this claim that the authors are "fringe." So this is a generic problem. The publishers involved are solidly mainstream. (On the Wikiversity page, I did not count as "mainstream" the Journal of Scientific Exploration, for obvious reasons. Unlike the others, they are deliberately not mainstream.)
So, my question: Is the recent paper reliable source? May facts and conclusions presented there be used in the article? This is a recent source, supported by many recent secondary sources. Does it therefore carry more weight than old responses from twenty years ago, when far less was known about the topic? Thanks for looking at this issue. As a COI editor, I will not be editing the article itself in any controversial way, but I want to be able to better advise the actual editors. --Abd (talk) 19:45, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- Reliability when it comes to people is essentially a function of reputation. The reputation of an author directly affects his or her reliability as a source. When an author becomes known for supporting ideas that are generally considered fringe, we should not be surprised when that support negatively affects the authors general reputation. When the reputation becomes poor enough it carries over into the assessment of his or her other works. Blueboar (talk) 20:18, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- Just to be clear, we're talking about mainstream science journals here, and opinions based only an ad hominem circumstantial in turn based on another opinion. The question is largely rhetorical. The policy is unambiguous on the matter. Kevin Baastalk 20:24, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- That's correct, Kevin, yes, I believe I know the "correct answer," per policy, but what if I'm wrong? Reputation of the author would be important for ordinary reliable source, outside of peer-review. In this case, yes, Blueboar, what happened was that writing about anything related to cold fusion, for years, was considered a sign that the person was deluded, and it didn't matter what they actually wrote, it might have been as sober and careful as possible, if it was seen as "supporting cold fusion," it was enough to besmirch reputations. Wikipedians simply picked up on that, and continued it, losing track of what was actually happening at the peer-reviewed journals. After all, why bother reading the actual sources, which can be hard to obtain and read, if you are sure that cold fusion is fringe and that anything that seems to support it must therefore be fringe. --Abd (talk) 20:45, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- cold fusion is totally discredited in mainstream's eyes, only a small group of scientists keeps working on the field, and it's still discredited. Abd, stop spreading misinformation and POV-pushing. --Enric Naval (talk) 21:30, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- Cool, Eric, I like that, quoting your own evidence, which only shows two things, both of which I agree completely with: First, cold fusion was totally rejected, seriously so. Back then. Secondly, even when signs began to appear that it was being accepted, most notably with the 2004 review by the U.S. DoE, which didn't at all treat Cold fusion as if it were "fringe," people in the field continued with an assumption that they were still being rejected (and certainly in some areas, among those not informed about the evidence, they were). Further, it is still certainly true that it is being neglected, compared to the potential significance, hence the JSE publications last year.
- Please point to specific misinformation above or elsewhere, or please retract your allegation. Your evidence doesn't contradict, at all, what I've written, which is about how the field developed after the 2004 U.S. Department of Energy review. However, this is all really irrelevant. It has no bearing at all on the reliability of this specific paper. I was merely establishing why some caution should be exercised.--Abd (talk) 21:49, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- cold fusion is totally discredited in mainstream's eyes, only a small group of scientists keeps working on the field, and it's still discredited. Abd, stop spreading misinformation and POV-pushing. --Enric Naval (talk) 21:30, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- That's correct, Kevin, yes, I believe I know the "correct answer," per policy, but what if I'm wrong? Reputation of the author would be important for ordinary reliable source, outside of peer-review. In this case, yes, Blueboar, what happened was that writing about anything related to cold fusion, for years, was considered a sign that the person was deluded, and it didn't matter what they actually wrote, it might have been as sober and careful as possible, if it was seen as "supporting cold fusion," it was enough to besmirch reputations. Wikipedians simply picked up on that, and continued it, losing track of what was actually happening at the peer-reviewed journals. After all, why bother reading the actual sources, which can be hard to obtain and read, if you are sure that cold fusion is fringe and that anything that seems to support it must therefore be fringe. --Abd (talk) 20:45, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- Keeping myself completely separate from the argument above, I would definitely say that that source is reliable. The author, the publication's own sources that it utilizes, and the place it is presented at all point to it being completely a RS. Whatever the issues with the "fringeness" of the subject, that source is most certainly perfect to use for info and content creation. SilverserenC 22:04, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- There is a scientific disagreement going on here. The proper place for the disagreement is in the scientific journals, not on Wikipedia talk pages. The vast bulk of the physics community is pointedly ignoring the whole topic of cold fusion, considering it a fringe line of enquiry likely to lead nowhere, but a few scientists continue to research it. One scientist, Kirk Shanahan, has published two papers suggesting that effects that have been found in the past may be due to measurement error. This puts the onus on those who think there evidence of nuclear reactions to rule measurement error out. The Storms paper discussed above rejects Shanahan's findings. Whether it does so effectively or not is up to physicists to judge. We have no subsequent papers to draw on, but Kirk Shanahan himself contributes to the article talk pages and says that the Storms paper has misrepresented him. As far as I can see, then, the debate is ongoing. The Storms paper is not an independent review of the literature but a salvo in the debate. It should be treated as one of the primary sources. There has already been a suggestion on the talk page to this effect, and I think it could gain consensus except for a couple of editors. As far as sourcing policy goes, we should note that the papers on both sides have been in scientific journals, but not the the top journals for new physics research. In our natural science articles we usually regard individual papers as primary sources. I am involved in the sense of having made some posts recently, mainly to try and unpack the disagreement. Itsmejudith (talk) 07:49, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- scientific disagreement? Where? Yes, the proper place for that is journals. The journals appear to consider the matter closed. But I have no crystal ball, some critical comment may yet appear. Shanahan's papers are isolated, and not confirmed in any secondary source, and Shanahan has been complaining that they won't publish further response from him. Storms does not "discuss" Shanahan's "findings," he, like others, simply rejects them with no more analysis (he responded to them four years ago). If this is a "salvo" in the "debate," where is the other side? That interpretation of a peer-reviewed secondary source, explicitly a "Review," confirming fifteen other peer-reviewed secondary sources over the last five years, as a "salvo" is completely an assumption, unbased in sources. It's not like Storms (2010) is some isolated freak. So, Judith, are you arguing that this isn't a reliable secondary source? Can you be specific about your reasons for that? I don't see how what you claim above relates to our guidelines. Yes, papers on both sides have been in scientific journals. But the "negative" side disappeared from PR secondary sources, somewhere before 2005. As to "top journals for new physics research," that's not a basis for rejecting a source, at all. What's appeared in those "top journals" and when? Naturwissenschaften explicitly solicits material like this, and they are, in fact, a "top journal", and they cover physics, they are Springer-Verlag's "flagship multidisciplinary journal." You are raising a balance issue, not to be resolved here. This is about a single paper, proposed as reliable peer-reviewed secondary source, vs. our guidelines on that. If this is a "primary source," as claimed, we have demolished our standards. --Abd (talk) 14:49, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- "Shanahan's papers are isolated, and not confirmed in any secondary source," neither are Storms' papers. --Enric Naval (talk) 16:21, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- That's totally incorrect, but this isn't the place. Itsmejudith raised Shanahan, proposing that his unpublished claim that Storms has misrepresented him somehow calls into question Storms as a source, which is giving far too much weight to an isolated opinion, not reflected in recent decisions of peer reviewers. The place to discuss this is article Talk, if and when it becomes relevant. Not here. Is Storms (2010) a peer-reviewed secondary source, a review of the field, in a mainstream journal? That's the question. --Abd (talk) 16:37, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Of course it is. But it's not in a physics journal, it's authored by a fringe author, and you are trying to give it WP:UNDUE weight. --Enric Naval (talk) 19:20, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- If you look back at the archives of the article talk page you'll find that I defended Naturwissenschaften when others didn't. My judgement now, and it is a question of judgement and where to draw the line, is that it is RS. But it is not possible to argue that it is the natural place to publish a major paper in physics. We might be able to settle it by metrics. Itsmejudith (talk) 19:43, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Does "natural place" figure into our RS guidelines? And how is "natural place" determined for "Chemically Induced Nuclear Reactions" (Hoffman, 1995)? Chemistry or Physics? Thanks for the comment on RS, that was obvious. Is it peer-reviewed secondary source? Above, you implied that it was a primary source, apparently contradicting the plain presentation of it in the journal. --Abd (talk) 21:00, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) Firstly, I believe we're talking about the Naturwissenschaften publication. secondly, RS is based on the publisher, not the author, and finally, we already had a very clear definitive answer from someone on this board regarding the topic of this section. notice answers from ourselves, "talking to ourselves" in this section, is utterly pointless. we're here for outside advice regarding a very specific RS question. and so far we only have one, so let's try not to discourage more. Kevin Baastalk 19:48, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- It appears to be a reliable source. What matters is the publication not the writer. The problem is WP:NPOV. If the opinions have been ignored then they are fringe. Fringe btw applies not only to crazy theories but to scientific theories ignored by the mainstream. Today's orthodoxy is yesterday's fringe. But we must follow scientific understanding rather than lead it. TFD (talk) 20:34, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- If you look back at the archives of the article talk page you'll find that I defended Naturwissenschaften when others didn't. My judgement now, and it is a question of judgement and where to draw the line, is that it is RS. But it is not possible to argue that it is the natural place to publish a major paper in physics. We might be able to settle it by metrics. Itsmejudith (talk) 19:43, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Of course it is. But it's not in a physics journal, it's authored by a fringe author, and you are trying to give it WP:UNDUE weight. --Enric Naval (talk) 19:20, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- That's totally incorrect, but this isn't the place. Itsmejudith raised Shanahan, proposing that his unpublished claim that Storms has misrepresented him somehow calls into question Storms as a source, which is giving far too much weight to an isolated opinion, not reflected in recent decisions of peer reviewers. The place to discuss this is article Talk, if and when it becomes relevant. Not here. Is Storms (2010) a peer-reviewed secondary source, a review of the field, in a mainstream journal? That's the question. --Abd (talk) 16:37, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- "Shanahan's papers are isolated, and not confirmed in any secondary source," neither are Storms' papers. --Enric Naval (talk) 16:21, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- scientific disagreement? Where? Yes, the proper place for that is journals. The journals appear to consider the matter closed. But I have no crystal ball, some critical comment may yet appear. Shanahan's papers are isolated, and not confirmed in any secondary source, and Shanahan has been complaining that they won't publish further response from him. Storms does not "discuss" Shanahan's "findings," he, like others, simply rejects them with no more analysis (he responded to them four years ago). If this is a "salvo" in the "debate," where is the other side? That interpretation of a peer-reviewed secondary source, explicitly a "Review," confirming fifteen other peer-reviewed secondary sources over the last five years, as a "salvo" is completely an assumption, unbased in sources. It's not like Storms (2010) is some isolated freak. So, Judith, are you arguing that this isn't a reliable secondary source? Can you be specific about your reasons for that? I don't see how what you claim above relates to our guidelines. Yes, papers on both sides have been in scientific journals. But the "negative" side disappeared from PR secondary sources, somewhere before 2005. As to "top journals for new physics research," that's not a basis for rejecting a source, at all. What's appeared in those "top journals" and when? Naturwissenschaften explicitly solicits material like this, and they are, in fact, a "top journal", and they cover physics, they are Springer-Verlag's "flagship multidisciplinary journal." You are raising a balance issue, not to be resolved here. This is about a single paper, proposed as reliable peer-reviewed secondary source, vs. our guidelines on that. If this is a "primary source," as claimed, we have demolished our standards. --Abd (talk) 14:49, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- There is a scientific disagreement going on here. The proper place for the disagreement is in the scientific journals, not on Wikipedia talk pages. The vast bulk of the physics community is pointedly ignoring the whole topic of cold fusion, considering it a fringe line of enquiry likely to lead nowhere, but a few scientists continue to research it. One scientist, Kirk Shanahan, has published two papers suggesting that effects that have been found in the past may be due to measurement error. This puts the onus on those who think there evidence of nuclear reactions to rule measurement error out. The Storms paper discussed above rejects Shanahan's findings. Whether it does so effectively or not is up to physicists to judge. We have no subsequent papers to draw on, but Kirk Shanahan himself contributes to the article talk pages and says that the Storms paper has misrepresented him. As far as I can see, then, the debate is ongoing. The Storms paper is not an independent review of the literature but a salvo in the debate. It should be treated as one of the primary sources. There has already been a suggestion on the talk page to this effect, and I think it could gain consensus except for a couple of editors. As far as sourcing policy goes, we should note that the papers on both sides have been in scientific journals, but not the the top journals for new physics research. In our natural science articles we usually regard individual papers as primary sources. I am involved in the sense of having made some posts recently, mainly to try and unpack the disagreement. Itsmejudith (talk) 07:49, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
Is this really an RS question, or a question of due weighting of sources?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:19, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- RS question, of course. There really is debate about this and articles like it on the talk page with regard to WP:RS / WP:OR. As Abd states above, it seems we need some clarification. Kevin Baastalk 13:47, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I guess there is a fine line between weighting questions and RS questions sometimes. I was wondering what RS-related issues are really the subject of disagreement? I guess no one is arguing that Naturwissenschaft is an unreliable source in any absolute way, just a less strong source than would normally be needed to make "redflag" claims? And on the other hand is anyone really claiming that the source is of the highest strength for this type of field? Also, I wonder (I have not spent time looking through this BTW) whether anyone is arguing that cold fusion claims simply can't be mentioned, at least as notable fringe theories. So if those three things aren't the debate, isn't it more a question of balancing to get the right weighting? If it really is one of those three things, then my mistake, but I don't see it straight away.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:36, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I think we all recognize the importance of weighing issues with controversial subjects such as this. Sometimes, perhaps, to our detriment. The problem is that often times there will be circular reasoning and arguments or confusions of policies and all in all way too much subjectivity and chaos to really get anything accomplished. I think this is sort of an attempt to really deal with things that can be evaluated objectively, one at a time, answer the easiest questions first, so we can get something concrete so that we can get it out of the way and thus simplify discussion a little. i.e. the thinking here is that it's become apparent that if we are to make any progress we must deal with one issue at a time. and the most productive starting points are always the most independent, definable, and simple issues. (and all the better if they are among the most recurrent.) that, i believe---though i can only speak for myself---is why abd is asking what he is here. and i am fairly confident that failing a very clear and specific answer, repeated a few times, our discussions will continue to be plagued by confusion, misinterpretations, and distortions on the issue. Kevin Baastalk 15:38, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Good point about getting going through steps one at a time. So: In the post above I mentioned 3 types of RS question that might be relevant here, and suggested that I don't see much evidence that any of those three are in play. Do you agree?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 16:23, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I don't think any of those questions are in play, but I think that's besides the point. The point is to get an altogether different set of WP:RS - related questions answered by neutral parties with a lot of experience. Maybe there's a better forum for that? I don't know. I didn't start this section but it seems like a reasonable place to ask them. We've had a frustrating history of chaos related to sourcing concerns, some of them rather tenuous and even suspicious. So it seems it would be productive to try to get them out of the way in a more, formal, definitive manner. One less thing to debate, you know? Could help lead to less circular and more linear discussions. Kevin Baastalk 20:37, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Good point about getting going through steps one at a time. So: In the post above I mentioned 3 types of RS question that might be relevant here, and suggested that I don't see much evidence that any of those three are in play. Do you agree?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 16:23, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- The fact that this discussion, and other discussions so similar that they are sometimes confused with each each other, are occurring in several different places at once makes it difficult to have a sustained and coherent discussion among editors on the issues raised, or for outside observers to follow along. But of the part of it that's represented in this thread, I agree with Four Deuces and Andrew Lancaster that RS may not be the issue here so much as NPOV or its subclause, UNDUE. I also agree with Itsmejudith that there is an ongoing scientific debate on the question of how much measurement error has affected the conclusions of cold fusion research, and it isn't Wikipedia's role to become part of that debate; we wait until the dust has settled and then we present the mainstream consensus.
- I think we all recognize the importance of weighing issues with controversial subjects such as this. Sometimes, perhaps, to our detriment. The problem is that often times there will be circular reasoning and arguments or confusions of policies and all in all way too much subjectivity and chaos to really get anything accomplished. I think this is sort of an attempt to really deal with things that can be evaluated objectively, one at a time, answer the easiest questions first, so we can get something concrete so that we can get it out of the way and thus simplify discussion a little. i.e. the thinking here is that it's become apparent that if we are to make any progress we must deal with one issue at a time. and the most productive starting points are always the most independent, definable, and simple issues. (and all the better if they are among the most recurrent.) that, i believe---though i can only speak for myself---is why abd is asking what he is here. and i am fairly confident that failing a very clear and specific answer, repeated a few times, our discussions will continue to be plagued by confusion, misinterpretations, and distortions on the issue. Kevin Baastalk 15:38, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I guess there is a fine line between weighting questions and RS questions sometimes. I was wondering what RS-related issues are really the subject of disagreement? I guess no one is arguing that Naturwissenschaft is an unreliable source in any absolute way, just a less strong source than would normally be needed to make "redflag" claims? And on the other hand is anyone really claiming that the source is of the highest strength for this type of field? Also, I wonder (I have not spent time looking through this BTW) whether anyone is arguing that cold fusion claims simply can't be mentioned, at least as notable fringe theories. So if those three things aren't the debate, isn't it more a question of balancing to get the right weighting? If it really is one of those three things, then my mistake, but I don't see it straight away.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:36, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I have two concerns: (1) the source in question hasn't been published yet except online, and even online one can only see the abstract and first page without paying, so Abd is the only one as far as I know who has seen the whole paper, and yet he's pushing for its inclusion in our article. He has offered to send preprints to anyone wishing one, but this seems to me like jumping the gun a bit; why don't we wait until the paper is more accessible before we cite it in the article? (2) The question of this thread was posited on the idea that there have been attempts to discredit this source by labeling the author as "fringe" (My concern here is the allegation that an author is biased, fringe, with the implication that everything the author writes is therefore suspect) but the only diff that was offered as evidence for the allegation simply said that the author is "not independent or neutral." That's not quite the same as calling him fringe and "implying that anything the writer writes is suspect" so the way the question was framed here seems a bit of a red herring.
- To answer two of Andrew's questions, I don't think anyone is arguing that Naturwissenschaft is an unreliable source in any absolute sense, or that the claims of cold fusion researchers shouldn't be mentioned in our article, and I agree that the issue is weight rather than reliability. As to whether anyone is really claiming that the source is the highest strength for this kind of claim, in this field, I couldn't answer for anyone else, but as an observer it does seem as if in some of these discussions the source is being shined up to be more stellar than is warranted; for example much has been made, in some iterations of this discussion, of the fact that Einstein published there (well, yes, he did publish some short pieces in this journal, but they were mainly book reviews and short comments, not the theoretical physics papers that he is famous for) and scorn has been heaped on those who characterize the journal as a "life sciences" journal. I haven't taken part in these discussions, and I don't think how the journal is categorized is sufficient to the question of whether this is/isn't a strong source for the claims, but I was curious and looked for myself. Springerle, the publisher, classifies this journal under Biomedical and Life Sciences and although it makes a point of characterizing itself as a multidisciplinary journal, what's more telling than how the journal characterizes itself is what they publish. I looked at the titles of all the articles published in this journal for the last three years; there were 440 of them, and only 18 of the 440 were not immediately and obviously life sciences topics, with fairly heavy emphasis on evolutionary biology. (Typical titles: "Evolution of a new sense for wind in flying phasmids? Afferents and interneurons," "How do animals use substrate-borne vibrations as information source?" "Neurobiology of the homing pigeon," "Host manipulation by the orange leafhopper," "Delayed onset of vocal recognition in Australian sea lion pups," etc.) Of the 18 non-biology articles published in the three years, 8 were related to the environment and global warming concerns (fossil fuel CO2 emissions, aerosols and pollution, contaminant geochemistry, etc) two were editorials related to internal concerns of the journal (change in editorial direction, peer review) four were isolated science topics (polarized muons as spin labels, supramolecular chemistry, uranium oxidation states) and four were cold fusion-related. That half of the eight non-biological, non-environmental-science articles published in this journal in three years were related to cold fusion, when mainstream science in general has lost interest in the topic, is noteworthy, but I don't know what it means, if anything. Abd has also mentioned elsewhere, though not in this thread I believe, that Storms is on the editorial board of the journal. I don't know what that means either, but just a piece of information. At any rate, I agree with others that this is not fundamentally an RS issue.Woonpton (talk) 16:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- So it sounds like I was right to suggest that none of the 3 potential RSN-relevant arguments that there might be in such a case are actually the subject of the active disagreement. Apart from those three points, where there seems to be a rough agreement, is there some other aspect to this dispute which is relevant to RSN?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 16:31, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Firstly, I'd like some clarifications on your answers to Abd's specific questions here, per my concerns above. If I understand you correctly (and correct me if i'm wrong), you are saying that the recent paper is a reliable source? His second question, "May facts and conclusions presented there be used in the article?" was not answered, now was his third: "Does it therefore carry more weight than old responses from twenty years ago, when far less was known about the topic?". After that it seems that the most prudent and appropriate direction for a discussion like this is to address the more philosophical questions and concerns that were brought up in the preamble to those specific question. Otherwise, we're not really answering the question. So I'd like to know your thoughts on some of those. For instance, the title of this section "Does "fringe author" affect Reliable Source criteria?" remains an important unaswered question. To rephrase it: does WP:RS policy include caveats related to ad hominem opinions of the author (as distinct from publisher), and if so where is said policy and what does it state? That seems to me to be the main question being asked here. There are other concerns and understandings that Abd has (tacitly) asked for feedback on in his preamble. I, too,would be interested in feedback specifically addressing these things---as i'm sure would others on Talk:Cold Fusion. Kevin Baastalk 17:01, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Hi Kevin, My question is prior to any of these. I am wondering if any of these questions are really RS questions. As you said above, we should "really deal with things that can be evaluated objectively, one at a time, answer the easiest questions first, so we can get something concrete so that we can get it out of the way and thus simplify discussion a little".
- 1. "May facts and conclusions presented there be used in the article?" could be interpreted as an RS question or a content weighting question. But if it is an RS question then it is a question about whether the source is so bad that it fails RS absolutely, and can not be used for anything at all, which would be unusual. I see no one making that strong argument.
- 2. Does it therefore carry more weight than old responses from twenty years ago, when far less was known about the topic? This odd and leading question is even phrased as a weighting question. It surely seems to be something for editors working on the subject.
- 3. "Does "fringe author" affect Reliable Source criteria?" Again, if this is an RS question then it is asking for an unusually strong RS/N decision of a general and absolute rule. I think we can expect no such absolute and strong consensus, and that this is again normally a content "weighting" question. (So, no, I know of no simple policy on this, but if someone else know of one, let me know of course.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:05, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- So it sounds like I was right to suggest that none of the 3 potential RSN-relevant arguments that there might be in such a case are actually the subject of the active disagreement. Apart from those three points, where there seems to be a rough agreement, is there some other aspect to this dispute which is relevant to RSN?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 16:31, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- To answer two of Andrew's questions, I don't think anyone is arguing that Naturwissenschaft is an unreliable source in any absolute sense, or that the claims of cold fusion researchers shouldn't be mentioned in our article, and I agree that the issue is weight rather than reliability. As to whether anyone is really claiming that the source is the highest strength for this kind of claim, in this field, I couldn't answer for anyone else, but as an observer it does seem as if in some of these discussions the source is being shined up to be more stellar than is warranted; for example much has been made, in some iterations of this discussion, of the fact that Einstein published there (well, yes, he did publish some short pieces in this journal, but they were mainly book reviews and short comments, not the theoretical physics papers that he is famous for) and scorn has been heaped on those who characterize the journal as a "life sciences" journal. I haven't taken part in these discussions, and I don't think how the journal is categorized is sufficient to the question of whether this is/isn't a strong source for the claims, but I was curious and looked for myself. Springerle, the publisher, classifies this journal under Biomedical and Life Sciences and although it makes a point of characterizing itself as a multidisciplinary journal, what's more telling than how the journal characterizes itself is what they publish. I looked at the titles of all the articles published in this journal for the last three years; there were 440 of them, and only 18 of the 440 were not immediately and obviously life sciences topics, with fairly heavy emphasis on evolutionary biology. (Typical titles: "Evolution of a new sense for wind in flying phasmids? Afferents and interneurons," "How do animals use substrate-borne vibrations as information source?" "Neurobiology of the homing pigeon," "Host manipulation by the orange leafhopper," "Delayed onset of vocal recognition in Australian sea lion pups," etc.) Of the 18 non-biology articles published in the three years, 8 were related to the environment and global warming concerns (fossil fuel CO2 emissions, aerosols and pollution, contaminant geochemistry, etc) two were editorials related to internal concerns of the journal (change in editorial direction, peer review) four were isolated science topics (polarized muons as spin labels, supramolecular chemistry, uranium oxidation states) and four were cold fusion-related. That half of the eight non-biological, non-environmental-science articles published in this journal in three years were related to cold fusion, when mainstream science in general has lost interest in the topic, is noteworthy, but I don't know what it means, if anything. Abd has also mentioned elsewhere, though not in this thread I believe, that Storms is on the editorial board of the journal. I don't know what that means either, but just a piece of information. At any rate, I agree with others that this is not fundamentally an RS issue.Woonpton (talk) 16:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
Questions from Andrew Lancaster: I guess no one is arguing that Naturwissenschaft is an unreliable source in any absolute way, just a less strong source than would normally be needed to make "redflag" claims? And on the other hand is anyone really claiming that the source is of the highest strength for this type of field?
- Andrew, it depends a lot on what claims an editor is seeking to support. I believe that Abd wants the paper in question, Storms (2010), to be presented as a neutral and mainstream review of cold fusion. His statement at user talk:Newyorkbrad that cold fusion is now at worst "emerging science" suggests to me that he sees the lack of recent criticism of cold fusion as proof that the mainstream have accepted that cold fusion is no longer fringe - which simply is not the case. To support a claim like cold fusion is not fringe, I would argue, requires publications in much more prominent physics journals or in something like Nature, and written by someone who hasn't been researching cold fusion for the last two decades.
Further, one critic of Storms who has published alternative explanations is Shanahan, and Storms (2010) apparently states that earlier Storms publications refuted Shanahan. On this topic, I suggest, Storms is not a secondary source but rather a primary one. A blanket declaration that Storms (2010) is a secondary source would allow it to be used to present Shanahan's work as published but refuted.
In short, I don't doubt that Storms (2010) is suffiently reliable and notable to be included in the article, but I have serious reservations about what sort of statements it might be used to support. In that sense, yes it is an UNDUE / redflag issue.
Also, I wonder (I have not spent time looking through this BTW) whether anyone is arguing that cold fusion claims simply can't be mentioned, at least as notable fringe theories.
- The problem here is that we have editors who earnestly believe that cold fusion is no longer fringe. Editors who believe that being ignored by the mainstream scientific community can mean that a run of unchallenged positive publications means that the consensus has moved. Editors seeking to right what they see as a great wrong, in other words. The facts are simple - cold fusion will not move away from being disregarded fringe until a paper is produced that describes an experiment that can be reliably reproduced by independent researchers and the results of which cannot be explained by conventional science. The first part of this has not been achieved - evidence of excess heat is spotty at best, and can be conventially explained - yet Abd's comments (off-wiki) include assertions that fusion is proven.
In short, we have agenda-driven editors who who seek to use wikilawyering about policy and the fact that the scientific community mostly ignores anything about cold fusion to present what they see as the truth. I suggest that you bear in mind these issues when looking at comments about this topic area. EdChem (talk) 17:02, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Thanks EdChem. It sounds problematic in your description, but it does not sound like an RS/N question. According to your description this is an attempt to state what mainstream consensus is without using secondary sources, nor the least controversial primary sources, and that seems to me to be an OR question? If this is indeed emerging science, then it is too early for WP. In WP we only report what the outside world is saying, even if it wrong.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:08, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- That's correct, Andrew. The source here is definitely a mainstream publication, of high reputation. How it is actually used is up to article consensus. (As I noted above, it is not my decision, and what I supposedly want -- which is mischaracterized -- is irrelevant, I am COI, I'm merely taking the position of someone knowledgeable about a field and who is also COI: advisory only, in Talk.) There is no attempt to state the "mainstream consensus," which is undefined. What I'll claim is that this alleged consensus -- categorical scientific rejection of cold fusion -- hasn't appeared in mainstream publications in secondary source reviews of the field for over five years, whereas there have been about sixteen positive reviews in such, over the same time, and I've made it easy to verify that claim. We won't resolve this issue here, but EdChem is pointing to a straw man: that I supposedly would want to claim that categorical rejection by "scientists" has disappeared. It hasn't. But it seems to have disappeared among some peer reviewers, at least, at mainstream publications. I'm pointing to a basic problem: What is "mainstream"? Is it the opinion of your average scientist, like EdChem, who is absolutely not familiar with the evidence? Or is it the opinion of experts who review evidence, as part of a task they take on, for a publication or as part of a review panel, and reject fringe that pretends to be acceptable? And, in the other direction, accept what is acceptable, perhaps as "emerging science"? --Abd (talk) 19:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Hi Abd. I can see an RS problem in what you say though. If you are trying to get a source which says the consensus has changed, and you only have WP:primary sources, then this is very difficult. It would have to be an undisputedly strong primary source. I can imagine the source you are mentioning would be objected to for such a difficult job. Is that a source of disagreement in this case?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 20:25, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Andrew, thanks. I'm not "trying to get a source" which says something. I'm looking, rather, at what peer-reviewed reliable sources, over the last five years, are saying, when there has been increasing publication in this field. (It's tripled since 2005). I'm also looking at what they imply, but only for one purpose, to interdict the abuse of allegations of "fringe" in determining article balance by rejecting "fringe sources." Which are, of course, fringe because the authors support a "fringe theory," which is circular. --Abd (talk) 20:53, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Hi Abd. I can see an RS problem in what you say though. If you are trying to get a source which says the consensus has changed, and you only have WP:primary sources, then this is very difficult. It would have to be an undisputedly strong primary source. I can imagine the source you are mentioning would be objected to for such a difficult job. Is that a source of disagreement in this case?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 20:25, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- That's correct, Andrew. The source here is definitely a mainstream publication, of high reputation. How it is actually used is up to article consensus. (As I noted above, it is not my decision, and what I supposedly want -- which is mischaracterized -- is irrelevant, I am COI, I'm merely taking the position of someone knowledgeable about a field and who is also COI: advisory only, in Talk.) There is no attempt to state the "mainstream consensus," which is undefined. What I'll claim is that this alleged consensus -- categorical scientific rejection of cold fusion -- hasn't appeared in mainstream publications in secondary source reviews of the field for over five years, whereas there have been about sixteen positive reviews in such, over the same time, and I've made it easy to verify that claim. We won't resolve this issue here, but EdChem is pointing to a straw man: that I supposedly would want to claim that categorical rejection by "scientists" has disappeared. It hasn't. But it seems to have disappeared among some peer reviewers, at least, at mainstream publications. I'm pointing to a basic problem: What is "mainstream"? Is it the opinion of your average scientist, like EdChem, who is absolutely not familiar with the evidence? Or is it the opinion of experts who review evidence, as part of a task they take on, for a publication or as part of a review panel, and reject fringe that pretends to be acceptable? And, in the other direction, accept what is acceptable, perhaps as "emerging science"? --Abd (talk) 19:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Thanks EdChem. It sounds problematic in your description, but it does not sound like an RS/N question. According to your description this is an attempt to state what mainstream consensus is without using secondary sources, nor the least controversial primary sources, and that seems to me to be an OR question? If this is indeed emerging science, then it is too early for WP. In WP we only report what the outside world is saying, even if it wrong.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:08, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
extended comment on this by Abd
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What's been happening is that, for years now, what would be otherwise peer-reviewed reliable secondary source, the supposed gold standard, has been rejected on the synthesized argument that it is "fringe." That is a violation of policy as clarified in RfAr/Fringe science. The issue is article balance, generally, and we determine article balance by the weight of sources. If we reject sources as "fringe," we have lost the only way of determining what is "fringe," and what might, then, be undue weight. Rather, there are really two subjects here, crammed into one article. One is the history of what Huizenga called "the scientific fiasco of the century," in 1992. The other is the current state of the science. Different kinds of sources may be used for this; for science, we rely on PR secondary sources, as much as possible. And science changes. Generally, if the quality of the review is similar, later sources supersede earlier ones, because we may assume that the later sources were informed by the earlier. The current review is absolutely the strongest source that exists in the present state of the science. It is not about "sociology" or "popular opinion among scientists." The argument given above by EdChem is synthesized, there is no source for it. It's certainly relevant to the history of cold fusion, but not to the present state of the science. The review itself is quite cautious, but it also states, clearly, what is known and established. Which is not at all what EdChem and many others, not familiar with the research, believe. Parts of this field are no longer controversial (in both directions, by the way!). Please notice the original question here: is a peer-reviewed secondary source, in a major mainstream publication -- and Naturwissenschaften is major, and covers physics, unlike some implication here -- to be deprecated because the author is allegedly "fringe"? Notice that if an major review article is to be written, it certainly wouldn't be surprising if it is written by someone who has been a researcher in the field! The issue is the peer review and the publisher decision. It is simply preposterous that a journal like NW would risk their considerable reputation on fringe nonsense! Controversial? I'm sure.
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- EdChem, I was going to say that with all due respect all that was off-topic. I'm sure we will get to the issues you mentioned (we always do). But they're not RS issues and I, and I presume others, want to get any RS/N questions out of the way first because they're easier to settle. (And after all, if it fails WP:RS, everything else becomes moot anyways.) Kevin Baastalk 20:00, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Regarding the initial question of whether the author being fringe affects the reliability of the source, "The word "source" as used on Wikipedia has three related meanings: the piece of work itself (the article, paper, document, book), the creator of the work (for example, the writer), and the publisher of the work (for example, The New York Times or Cambridge University Press). All three can affect reliability." As the overview states, "Articles should be based on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. This means that we only publish the opinions of reliable authors". I have no opinion on the reputation of the author for fact-checking and accuracy, leaving that to others to find evidence about, but he or she is clearly not a third party in this issue. The author can be expected to give a reliable account of his or her fringe views, and the source is reliable to that extent. Secondary sources would be required to show significance. The views would be appropriate in the article to the extent that they're significant to the topic, and if included should be presented in mainstream context to meet WP:WEIGHT which is another policy area. . . dave souza, talk 20:39, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- How can an article published in a respected journal not be RS? Of course it is a reliable source, it does not matter who authored it. mark nutley (talk) 20:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
I wish we could all keep proper perspective on issues like this, but I guess that's a forlorn hope. Can we all at least try to keep the game in the right ballpark? pointing out the obvious:
- Changing the temperature at which fusion occurs would be a major scientific advancement, if possible, and no scientist would sneer at the idea if someone managed to do it.
- The problematical aspects of the cold fusion debate occurred because a couple of scientists (whose names I forget) jumped to publication before they had all their facts in line, and then a whole bunch of 'popular press' and 'conspiracy theory' types jumped on the (unwittingly flawed) research.
- A scientist who can get an article published in a peer-reviewed journal is not dismissible simply because he's working in a topic area that has suffered setbacks. Scientists are constantly revisiting outmoded ideas to see if there's anything of value that new technology and methods can dig out of them. This is a normal part of the scientific process, and the fact that a team of other scientists reviewed the article and didn't find it wanting is sufficient indication that the research is acceptable scientific research.
- wp:Fringe only enters into this debate to keep Wikipedia editors from using that (perfectly reliable) scientific article to make claims about the topic or the state of the discipline that the article in no way can or would support. One article does not mean a revival of the concept, but just that there's still some scientific interest in the idea. It's just a matter of balance: does this article add anything of significance to the discussion without unduly skewing the perception of the topic?
that's where this discussion should be. --Ludwigs2 21:00, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
I need an approval on a reliable source on Russia as a superpower
1.A link to the source to on Russia as superpower[6] 2.The article in which it is being used is Russia 3.The exact statement in the article that the source is supporting down below:
The current writing is this: Russia is a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Community, the OSCE, and is the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
text here quote next to superpower on approval to use source as: I would like to replace it saying this: Russia is percieved as a superpower[7] and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, G20, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Community, the OSCE, and is the leading member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The source is "Will Russia Be the Superpower That Will Stop Iran from Going Nuclear" - The Middle East Media Research Institute By A. Savyon July 29, 2010[8]
There has been no discussion on this source so I am sending it here to get some views. I looked at this source as it list references in the source as Russia as a superpower and why Russia is considered to the world as a superpower world affairs, using the issue with Iran and the world over Iran, people are wanting and using Russia as the term superpower in its world influence. I think this is a good source personally, maybe not as lengthly but does title it and talks about it in the article and references in at the bottom, it also is written from an institute so it is also education institution source.
Please see if you can give me some views if this would be an accepted source to use or maybe one with a couple of more I could also use as daisey chain source to the subject as Russia being a superpower. I am would like to use this source to use as Russia being a perceived as superpower again or a superpower as I think it is important and I think it is a good source. Thanks--12.40.50.1 (talk) 21:30, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- I did a quick search for "Russia" and "superpower" and the things I found (this, for example) stated that Russia is no longer a superpower, but is still considered a "energy superpower". Then I ran across this, which states that Russia is no longer an energy superpower either, so...not sure where that leaves us. SilverserenC 22:14, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- I did a quick search also too I found this on Russia for energy superpower[9] here[10] and here[11] there seems to be positive evidence Russia accounts for being an energy superpower no doubt and especially with their new pipeline. I did a thorough search and I needed sometime on searching "Russia Federation superpower" and "russia as superpower" this is what I came accross[12] here[13] here[14] [15] here[16] here[17] here[18] [19] here[20] here[21] and here[22]. I am sure I can find more of them but requires more time reading them yet each of these there is some positive evidence out there that Russia has a world view to the world as being a superpower by some important people. Whether as energy superpower or using it as a superpower request it is a superpower in my belief just in what I have read and they maybe some sources that may say different but the quick search pulls these first. Energy superpower is one thing but their nation as a world leader I can agree with that notion as them being a superpower on the world stage.--Globalstatus (talk) 23:34, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
- I had a look myself on this and here's something I found a creditable source may also be worth reading ([23]) written by Steven Rosefielde called the "Russia in the 21st Century The Prodigal Superpower" from University of North Carolina by a foreign relations professor. I have viewed a couple of these sources from a above has a lot to do what is in this book for Russia being placed as a superpower. This source you mentioned has some weight itself[[24]], maybe small form but does speak of Russia being a superpower including references is also counted as college material for adding as a verified source for any research paper so it is to me a reliable source. I will concur with you on it that's my take. Good luck.--24.205.238.10 (talk) 05:24, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- To my mind, when one has to search hard to find some sources that asserts Russia is a superpower, as demonstrated above, then I think the issue of WP:UNDUE weight arises. --Martin (talk) 18:58, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Actually, most of those listed above are likely to be found from a simple Google News search. SilverserenC 19:03, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- I don't know if reliance solely on news sources is sufficient, as much of it can be subject to spin and hyperbole. Looking at List of countries by GDP (nominal), Russia squeaks in just ahead of Australia. Sure, Russia has significant energy reserves, but Australia has the world's largest resource base in coal, coal seam gas and uranium and significant natural gas reserves, but nobody asserts Australia is an "energy superpower", let alone an unqualified "superpower". Sure, Russia has nukes, but UK spends more on the military according to List of countries by military expenditures, nobody claims the UK is a "military superpower". Russia has potential to be one in the future, but is has a long way to go in comparison to the USA (which has a GDP 10 time bigger and a military spend a wopping 12 times bigger than Russia). --Martin (talk) 19:36, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Opinions from news sources (unless you are talking about specialized magazines such as Foreign Policy and The Economist) are generally not RS on international geopolitics. Note on other sources: the Cambridge book is an essay on why Russian could become a superpower, not that Russia is a superpower today. The other source, which is the MEMRI report, the analysis is on how Russia could influence Iran in the current nuclear stand off, while the concept of Russia as a superpower in today's international order was not discussed at all. Both these sources are not valid in supporting the superpower label for Russia. The best we could do with the current non-mass media sources is to support the statement "MEMRI believes Russia is a superpower", but given MEMRI is more of a media think tank than a geopolitics think tank, per WP:UNDUE what MEMRI believes in shouldn't even be mentioned in the first place. Jim101 (talk) 21:11, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- I don't know if reliance solely on news sources is sufficient, as much of it can be subject to spin and hyperbole. Looking at List of countries by GDP (nominal), Russia squeaks in just ahead of Australia. Sure, Russia has significant energy reserves, but Australia has the world's largest resource base in coal, coal seam gas and uranium and significant natural gas reserves, but nobody asserts Australia is an "energy superpower", let alone an unqualified "superpower". Sure, Russia has nukes, but UK spends more on the military according to List of countries by military expenditures, nobody claims the UK is a "military superpower". Russia has potential to be one in the future, but is has a long way to go in comparison to the USA (which has a GDP 10 time bigger and a military spend a wopping 12 times bigger than Russia). --Martin (talk) 19:36, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
RMS Titanic and Good as Gold
Conversation on the article's talk page seeks to add a new theory as to why the ship hit the iceberg, based on a story in the culture section of The Daily Telegraph: "Titanic sunk by steering blunder, new book claims". It turns out that the revelations are made by the novelist Louise Patten ("I was the last person alive to know what really happened on the night Titanic sank") to coincide with the release of her new novel Good as Gold, apparently dealing with financial impropriety by one of the passengers. In turn Patten had heard the tale from her grandmother who was the wife of one of the officers. My contention on the talk page is that this is hearsay and cannot be used as a reliable source for Wikipedia. --Old Moonraker (talk) 07:49, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- RMS Titanic is a long article so the existing passage, with its supporting reference, is copied here:
- First Officer Murdoch gave the order "hard-a-starboard", using the traditional tiller order for an abrupt turn to port (left),<reference: Butler (1988: 266) "In 1912, helm orders were given according to the tradition of the earliest days of sail; that is by the direction the tiller bar was pushed in order to turn the ship, not the direction the rudder was turned. Murdoch's order of 'Hard a starboard!' meant that Hitchens turned the wheel to the right...making the rudder pivot left. Helm orders on British merchant ships weren't rationalized until the mid-1930s.">
- --Old Moonraker (talk) 10:00, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Putting it another way, a number of editors are seeking to include recently cited testimony that the family of Titanic's most informed surviving senior officer, Charles Lightoller, received information from him which they kept secret for generations until recently publicised worldwide. The question is not whether the revealed information is true (or constitutes "a new theory") but whether and how the Wikipedia article should report this spectacular episode and its two pertinent allegations in a manner that enables evaluation by all readers. I note that a parallel controversy has been created in the article on Lightoller. Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 14:43, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- WP:UNDUE appears to apply. Active Banana ( bananaphone 14:47, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Spectacular the revelation may be, but their first appearance on WP nonetheless seems to be undue with respect to the treatment of other topics in the article, and unsustained by its source. Although it opens with "Lady (Louise) Patten has suggested", substantially it was reporting the tale as fact. --Old Moonraker (talk) 15:24, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- WP:UNDUE appears to apply. Active Banana ( bananaphone 14:47, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Putting it another way, a number of editors are seeking to include recently cited testimony that the family of Titanic's most informed surviving senior officer, Charles Lightoller, received information from him which they kept secret for generations until recently publicised worldwide. The question is not whether the revealed information is true (or constitutes "a new theory") but whether and how the Wikipedia article should report this spectacular episode and its two pertinent allegations in a manner that enables evaluation by all readers. I note that a parallel controversy has been created in the article on Lightoller. Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 14:43, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Patten's 'steering blunder' allegation does seem like hokum. (If there had been a mistake with a helm order it's improbable that Murdoch would have been discreet about it, at the time. - Apart from anything else, he'd have been enlightening the helmsman and the junior watch officer about the errors of their ways, and everyone in the vicinity would have heard.) - Patten's assertion really belongs in the Titanic 'alternative theories' article. However, the longstanding 'tiller order' / 'rudder order' controversy is an area which needs to be clarified. Possibly there are surviving records connected with the manufacture and installation of Titanic's telemotor gear. Norloch (talk) 09:20, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
Shiite propaganda sites
There is a simmering edit war at Sahih al-Bukhari with an editor aggressively adding Shiite propaganda to the page. On other pages, these has been somewhat of an agreement that most of the mainstream Islamic sites, regardless of sect, are unacceptable as most are simply not reliable sources. In this particular instance, the strong bias of the two websites in question, as evidenced below, add to that unreliability. I cut and pasted part of what I wrote at Talk:Sahih al-Bukhari#Textual distortion section regarding this issue:
“ | The two websites, al-islam.org and Answering-Ansar.org, which you have cited are clearly Shiite propaganda sites. The former says this on its homepage:
And the later:
In addition to the the sites' POV nature, they are simply not reliable to begin with. To quote the relevant guideline, WP:SPS:
This clearly includes these two sites are being unreliable. Your choice of words, "mutilation", hardly makes the addition of this section seem unbiased. |
” |
Supertouch (talk) 10:51, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- First, the two sources. Answering Ansar is not a reliable source; as you said, it's self-published. But al-islam.org is a little more tricky. The site claims to be run by "Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project", a 501c3 - and as far as I can tell, it's an actual organization (1, 2). Just because it's a propaganda site doesn't mean that it can't be used per se.
- Now I'm pretty sure this is the edit in question. What you've got there is a case of original research and synthesis. The editor is using an al-islam source that is just a straight scan of a book to make the claim that "proves that the Arabic text of the hadith and the English equivalent are completely different" and then goes on to do a self-translation of the text. That's just flat out original research and should not be included. So while al-islam.org may be an acceptable source in some cases, the way it's being used here isn't. — HelloAnnyong (say whaaat?!) 12:29, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- First of all, thanks for your prompt response. While I agree that perhaps the al-islam.org site is not necessarily a black and white case, how does its being operated by an actual organization affect its status as a reliable source? The sheer number of websites that criterion would therefore allow — specifically in Islam-related articles but also elsewhere — would allow anyone to say anything. Supertouch (talk) 12:48, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- I meant it more as showing that the site doesn't clearly fall into WP:SPS. — HelloAnnyong (say whaaat?!) 13:05, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
- Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project, which is used as a source here,has been cited by the Columbia University here (as a main reference on Islam), the British Academy here, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade here, the George Mason University here, Intute here, and is archived by the Library of Congress and so it can't be considered as an unreliable source. All can send comment, suggestion, information and ... to it, but it doesn't mean they will publish it. The text is verifiable, and I believe as the external link of translation exists in the article, it's necessary to have this section in the article. If a sentence, like what User:HelloAnnyong mentioned has problem, it's better to rewrite it or ask for citation, instead of deleting the whole text. I am ready to help to rewrite this section or a new article with user:supertouch or anyone else as I mentioned before, but for sure I will resist against the deletion of this important section as the text is verifiable and the sources are reliable.--Aliwiki (talk) 13:56, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
alumnifinder database for personal info
There is a question at Talk:Tommy Wiseau#Sources which cite birth date about whether the "alumnifinder" database is a WP:RS for some WP:BLP information that does not appear to be available elsewhere. DMacks (talk) 16:54, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
- Well...i'm not sure if I would just call them unreliable. I mean, their about page does explain a lot and, if they are going through governmental sources to get their info, it would likely be accurate. SilverserenC 21:48, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
Encyclopedia of the Nations (website)
I discovered a couple of articles that had been plagiarized from a website calling itself Encyclopedia of the Nations and have added copyvio tags to them.
But has anyone noticed this website before? What is the origin of the content of this "encyclopedia"? It seems to be run by a company called Advameg, describing itself as "a fast growing Illinois-based company", but I see nothing indicating who the editors or authors are. --Hegvald (talk) 12:37, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Unreliable, unsigned tertiary with no evidence of editorial oversight. Fifelfoo (talk) 12:58, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
haaretz.com is no longer a reliable source
Apparently haaretz.com cannot be loaded inside the UAE (see P-800 Oniks history) and no doubt by other ISPs in the Islamic world.
Should we then consider all Israeli media to be non-reliable sources? And what should we do about all those sites that subjects of the PRC cannot see? Hcobb (talk) 14:51, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- I am wondering if you are being sarcastic, but if so please remember jokes are hard to transmit in bare text. Assuming otherwise then, can you explain why being banned by one country would make a source unreliable? Many good sources have been banned somewhere. I do not know of any WP tendency to see such political events as relevant in any way to sourcing questions here?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:03, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- (ec)The fact that one reader, using an IP from Dubai, could not find the citation, does not mean that Haaretz.com cannot be accessed in the UAE. There could be many reasons for this -- parhaps his workplace blocked newspaper sites? How do we know?
- And even if, for whatever reason (state censorship, editorial decision or technical reasons) Haaretz cannot be accessed in the UAE, that does not make it any less of a reliable source. The BBC has at various times been blocked by different states. There are probably states which block access to Al-Jazeera. And Wikipedia is full of links to articles which cannot be opened except by readers with access too an academic library. So what? These are all still reliable sources. RolandR (talk) 15:12, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
Secondary school text book
Is this book, which is written for English secondary school students for courses about American government, a reliable source for Libertarianism and if so what sort. According to WP:NOR, "Many introductory undergraduate-level textbooks are regarded as tertiary sources because they sum up multiple secondary sources." But this book is not even undergraduate level.
While common sense tells us not to use the book, are there any policy reasons that state it cannot be used?
TFD (talk) 15:44, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Yes, it is a reliable tertiary source (published by a reputable publishing house etc.)... however, this does not mean that it is the most reliable source possible. Secondary school level text books often simplify their material to make it understandable by younger students. We aim for better... so, while the source can be used... if there is a higher quality secondary source available, use that higher quality source instead. Blueboar (talk) 16:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
LeMO (in German)
The website [25] looks reasonably serious (a collaboration of Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM) in Berlin, the Haus der Geschichte (HdG) in Bonn and also the de:Fraunhofer-Institut für Software- und Systemtechnik in Berlin). Of course it is in German, but I was considering using it as a replacement for NNDB in the List of University of Heidelberg people for those people with no on-line reference in English. Or would it we better to use the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie from wikisource [[26]]? Thanks for your advise. --Anneyh (talk) 18:50, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Given that all sound at first sight like reliable sources, the nature of the question is not so clear. We do not have to choose between reliable sources unless they disagree. But it would be surprising if they disagree in this particular case?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Unless the start page is one huge, blatant lie, this is very obviously a reliable source. I don't understand why you want to replace NNDB entries in it with your list, though: Are you talking about LeMO entries which have incorporated the NNDB data or link to it? Then it would make sense. Otherwise, please note that the English Wikipedia tends to use a lot more sources than the German one; most good English articles are heavily over-sourced by the standards of the German WP community. Hans Adler 08:50, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I actually come from WP:FR where the policy is closer than on WP:DE but there is no source noticeboard, that's also why I asked the question here.
- I had a look on this noticeboard and NNDB was not considered as a reliable source. So I was wondering what source to use to get the List of University of Heidelberg people correctly sourced (and then to translate that back to WP:FR). There are also unsourced lines... on the page. For Mathematician, it's easy to find notable ones on Mac Tutor or the mathematical genealogy (I tend to prefer the first one) for other the only source may be in German and LeMo looked very good. --Anneyh (talk) 14:07, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
The Cambridge history of India, Volume 6
I'd like to see some discussion about whether The Cambridge history of India, Volume 6 and other volumes of the series along with similar Cambridge history for other nations are reliable. The source is to be used for results and Casualties and losses section of Battle of Phillora along with other details described in the book through this section of book. The volume like the other volumes in the series is written by multiple famous and important historians and authors with knowledge of Indian history and even includes works of even historians and authors who lived in 18 and/or 19 century. The publisher of the is S.Chand, one of the largest publisher in Indian subcontinent and publishes the volume for sale in the Indian subcontinent. The information in the book is important because it is probably one of the only reliable neutral review of battle as other reliable medias only concentrated on the whole war rather than individual battles.
- However one of the editor had been reverting the changes I made based on the source before I requested protection stating I need to come up with the name of the exact author or historian who wrote the lines in question out of the many who wrote the book. As far as I know Cambridge University would not publish any false information purposefully but clearly I am not the authority or have the power to gather information regarding "who wrote which line??" from Cambridge University.--UplinkAnsh (talk) 22:24, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Um...that's silly. No, you don't need to say specifically which of the writers wrote that specific line. If it tells you which one for some of them, it would be nice to have that as a part of the reference description, but it is definitely not necessary. You are referencing the book as a whole, not the specific "writer among many". SilverserenC 22:32, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- It looks like a reliable source to me. Zuggernaut (talk) 22:44, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Agreed, reliable and no need to specify what author(s) wrote the specific content in question. PЄTЄRS
JVЄСRUМВА ►TALK 22:51, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
- Agreed, reliable and no need to specify what author(s) wrote the specific content in question. PЄTЄRS
- Actually you need to provide a full citation including the author of the section of the whole text you relied upon. The object you describe has individual authors for chapters or entries. The author of the chapter you used, and the title of the chapter, should be cited. As the author of an individual chapter goes to its reliability, just as much as the publisher, the chapter's author and title need to be cited. This is also because you didn't reference the entire work, you referenced a subsection of the work. Fifelfoo (talk) 01:20, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I didn't notice that. Well, if the author is listed at the beginning of each chapter, that's easy enough for the OP to list. The opposing editor in this situation (whomever the OP is talking about) though should have taken the time and initiative to look at the reference and add the writer's name to the description, instead of removing it entirely. SilverserenC 01:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Unless the editor of a work is merely a compiler and "chapters" are position papers representing diverse views of different authors exploring a particular topic, that level of citation (author of particular section) should not be required for a work which is considered encyclopedic in structure, either general or on a specific area of study. That said, if individual authors are specifically noted at the start of each section, then I agree the actual author should be noted in the citation. PЄTЄRS
JVЄСRUМВА ►TALK 01:42, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- Unless the editor of a work is merely a compiler and "chapters" are position papers representing diverse views of different authors exploring a particular topic, that level of citation (author of particular section) should not be required for a work which is considered encyclopedic in structure, either general or on a specific area of study. That said, if individual authors are specifically noted at the start of each section, then I agree the actual author should be noted in the citation. PЄTЄRS
- I didn't notice that. Well, if the author is listed at the beginning of each chapter, that's easy enough for the OP to list. The opposing editor in this situation (whomever the OP is talking about) though should have taken the time and initiative to look at the reference and add the writer's name to the description, instead of removing it entirely. SilverserenC 01:30, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- User:Fifelfoo's suggestion is the preferred one but it should not be mandatory. User:UplinkAnsh is citing a book which lists five different people as authors. As long as he complies with the minimum requirements of the citation template being used, i.e, as long as all five authors are listed and the correct page numbers provided, there's shouldn't be a problem. Zuggernaut (talk) 04:03, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
RCU page reliably sourced?
Read-copy-update contains a large number of citations of works solely or primarily by User:PaulMcKenney, who also added them to the page. Some of them seem at a casual glance to be on hosted sites or articles like Linux Weekly. Could someone with more experience than me double-check these are reliable? --Chris Purcell (talk) 08:23, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- ^ McKenney, Paul E. (December 27, 2003). "Introduction to RCU". Paul E. McKenney. http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/RCU/. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
- Not RS, SELF.
- ^ McKenney, Paul E.; Walpole, Jonathan (December 17, 2007). "What is RCU, Fundamentally?". Linux Weekly News. http://lwn.net/Articles/262464/. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
- Edited news source, reliable.
- ^ McKenney, Paul E.; Slingwine, John D. (October 1998), "Read-Copy Update: Using Execution History to Solve Concurrency Problems", Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems: 509-518, http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/RCU/rclockpdcsproof.pdf
- No such publication? There is a "Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems", there is a conference "Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems" but this is not a correctly formatted conference publication citation, for instance, it doesn't indicate it is a [Conference] Probably reliable
- ^ Hart, Thomas E.; McKenney, Paul E.; Demke Brown, Angela; Walpole, Jonathan (December 2007), "Performance of memory reclamation for lockless synchronization", J. Parallel Distrib. Comput. 67: 1270-1285
- Reliable, peer reviewed
- ^ Guniguntala, Dinakar; McKenney, Paul E.; Triplett, Joshua; Walpole, Jonathan (April-June 2008), "The read-copy-update mechanism for supporting real-time applications on shared-memory multiprocessor systems with Linux", IBM Systems Journal 47: 221-236
- Reliable
- ^ McKenney, Paul E. (January 4, 2008). "RCU part 2: Usage". Linux Weekly News. http://lwn.net/Articles/263130/. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
- Reliable
- ^ Desnoyers, Mathieu (December 2009), "Low-Impact Operating System Tracing", Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, http://www.lttng.org/pub/thesis/desnoyers-dissertation-2009-12.pdf
- Incorrect citation of a thesis. If EPdM is a research university, if the thesis is accepted, if this is a research higher degree thesis this is reliable. (It is PhD, it appears accepted)
- ^ McKenney, Paul E. (January 17, 2008). "RCU part 3: the RCU API". Linux Weekly News. http://lwn.net/Articles/264090/. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
- Reliable
- ^ McKenney, Paul E.; Appavoo, Jonathan; Kleen, Andi; Krieger, Orran; Russell, Rusty; Sarma, Dipankar; Soni, Maneesh (July 2001), "Read-Copy Update", Ottawa Linux Symposium, http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/RCU/rclock_OLS.2001.05.01c.pdf
- Reliable
- ^ McKenney, Paul E. (October 2003). "Using {RCU} in the {Linux} 2.5 Kernel". Linux Journal. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6993. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
- Reliable
- ^ McKenney, Paul E. (July 2004), "Exploiting Deferred Destruction: An Analysis of Read-Copy-Update Techniques", OGI School of Science and Engineering at Oregon Health and Sciences University, http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/RCU/RCUdissertation.2004.07.14e1.pdf
- Incorrectly cited thesis; same criteria as before (appears accepted, PhD, Oregon State is a research university)
- ^ Kung, H. T.; Lehman, Q. (September 1980), "Concurrent Maintenance of Binary Search Trees", ACM Transactions on Database Systems 5 (3), http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=320619&dl=GUIDE,
- Reliable
- ^ Manber, Udi; Ladner, Richard E. (September 1984), "Concurrency Control in a Dynamic Search Structure", ACM Transactions on Database Systems 9 (3)
- Reliable
- ^ Pugh, William (June 1990), "Concurrent Maintenance of Skip Lists", Institute of Advanced Computer Science Studies, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland (CS-TR-2222.1)
- Incomplete citation; incorrect citation; departments and institutes are not publication titles; suspect unreliable
- ^ Adams, Gregory R. (1991), Concurrent Programming, Principles, and Practices, Benjamin Cummins
- Incomplete citation, publisher and place missing; unable to determine reliability
- ^ Gamsa, Ben; Krieger, Orran; Appavoo, Jonathan; Stumm, Michael (February 1999), "Tornado: Maximizing Locality and Concurrency in a Shared Memory Multiprocessor Operating System", Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Operating System Design and Implementation, http://www.usenix.org/events/osdi99/full_papers/gamsa/gamsa.pdf
- Reliable
- ^ McKenney, Paul E.; Walpole, Jonathan (July 2008), "Introducing technology into the Linux kernel: a case study", SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev. 42: 4-17
- Reliable
- Improve the standards of publication formatting by improving the fullness of the citations, particularly by noting that conferences are conferences, theses are PhD theses, etc. Fifelfoo (talk) 08:41, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
Reliable sources on Ayyavazhi (also evidently called Ayya vali)
God help us, so far as I can tell there are only three WorldCat listings which deal with this subject: Religion and Subaltern Agency, written by a doctoral student and Christian missionary at the University of Madras as per here, Sri Vaikunda Swamigal and the stuggle for social equality in South India, of which apparently only Oxford University holds a copy here, and finally, a government publication called Colonialism, nationalism and legitimation : an essay on Vaikunda Swamy cult, Travancore here. The former is apparently slightly more widely available, the last seems to be only in the Library of Congress and the Indian government library. Does the first qualify as reliable as per our guidelines? John Carter (talk) 15:11, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
- I think it may be a matter of transliteration rendering different spellings. It seems to be the same as the Vaikunta sect of Vaishnavism (this connection is made in Indian Church History Review, v. 26. June 1992. Serampore: Church History Association of India, p. 8.). There are likely other such articles with spelling variations in titles which should be merged. • Astynax talk 17:04, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
"How to Build a Superluminal Computer" -reliable source?
I am concerned particularly with this article: [27], referenced here: Hypercomputer#cite_note-11.
It caught my eye because this has been proposed again and again for decades, and always the answer is no. and this is no different, and no more significant. From the article: "So-called "nonlocal" phenomenon cannot be used to transmit information faster than the speed of light but Putz and Svozil today ask whether it can be used to process it, to carry out computational tasks at superluminal speeds." The problem here is that processing information 'is TRANSFERing it. Processing is just another word for entropic transfer. (transfer with loss of information entropy). So the question of whether "it can be used to process it" IS the question of whether "[it] be used to transmit [it]". A question whose answer is a definite "no". So the blog makes the mistake on notability on account of a rather egregious error. My question is does it still meet RS? And in any case, should it be removed from WP? Kevin Baastalk 18:29, 27 September 2010 (UTC)