English

Comment on "Reproducibility and Replication of Experimental Particle Physics Results"

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability 2021-05-10 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

I would like to thank Junk and Lyons (arXiv:2009.06864) for beginning a discussion about replication in high-energy physics (HEP). Junk and Lyons ultimately argue that HEP learned its lessons the hard way through past failures and that other fields could learn from our procedures. They emphasize that experimental collaborations would risk their legacies were they to make a type-1 error in a search for new physics and outline the vigilance taken to avoid one, such as data blinding and a strict 5σ5\sigma threshold. The discussion, however, ignores an elephant in the room: there are regularly anomalies in searches for new physics that result in substantial scientific activity but don't replicate with more data.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2105.03082,
  title  = {Comment on "Reproducibility and Replication of Experimental Particle Physics Results"},
  author = {Andrew Fowlie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.03082},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

closely matches published comment & final words on rejoinder