Related papers: Conduct and Correctness in Mathematical Publishing

A broad current application of algorithms is in formal and quantitative measures of murky concepts -- like merit -- to make decisions. When people strategically respond to these sorts of evaluations in order to gain favorable decision…

"Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. Rigour should be a signal to the historian that the maps have been made, and the real explorers…

I give a short introduction to data ethics. I begin with some background information and societal context for data ethics. I then discuss data ethics in mathematical-science education and indicate some available course material. I briefly…

Many published research results are false, and controversy continues over the roles of replication and publication policy in improving the reliability of research. Addressing these problems is frustrated by the lack of a formal framework…

How does the extent to which a model is open or closed impact the scientific inferences that can be drawn from research that involves it? In this paper, we analyze how restrictions on information about model construction and deployment…

A proof is one of the most important concepts of mathematics. However, there is a striking difference between how a proof is defined in theory and how it is used in practice. This puts the unique status of mathematics as exact science into…

Psychology is a discipline standing at the crossroads of hard and social sciences. Therefore it is especially interesting to study bibliometric characteristics of psychology journals. We also take two adjacent disciplines, neurosciences and…

This essay considers the special character of mathematical reasoning, and draws on observations from interactive theorem proving and the history of mathematics to clarify the nature of formal and informal mathematical language. It proposes…

"Math is not a spectator sport." "Lecturing is educational malpractice." Slogans like these rally some mathematicians to teach classes that feature "active learning", where lecturing is eschewed for student participation. Yet as much as I…

Conducting a research project with multiple participants is a complex task that involves not only scientific but also multiple social, political, and psychological interactions. This complexity becomes particularly evident when it comes to…

English is widely used as a lingua franca in scholarly communication, yet preserving local languages is vital to reaching a broader audience. Disseminating research in multiple languages can help ensure equitable access, a responsibility…

This article discusses epistemological problems in the philosophy of mathematics and issues concerning the reliability of the mathematical literature.

The problem of detecting scientific fraud using machine learning was recently introduced, with initial, positive results from a model taking into account various general indicators. The results seem to suggest that writing style is…

Thanks to the enormous flexibility they provide, spreadsheets are considered a priceless blessing by many end-users. Many spreadsheets, however, contain errors which can lead to severe consequences in some cases. To manage these risks,…

Most researchers acknowledge an intrinsic hierarchy in the scholarly journals ('journal rank') that they submit their work to, and adjust not only their submission but also their reading strategies accordingly. On the other hand, much has…

We find it necessary to advise the interested and active instructor of Physics on the wrongness of some computations in the aforementioned article. Surprisingly, the Journal refuses to even publish an erratum on the paper, which naturally…

The past few years have witnessed an increasing use of machine learning (ML) systems in science. Paul Humphreys has argued that, because of specific characteristics of ML systems, human scientists are pushed out of the loop of science. In…

Scientists are generally subject to social pressures, including pressures to conform with others in their communities, that affect achievement of their epistemic goals. Here we analyze a network epistemology model in which agents, all else…

For-profit editors such as Elsevier and Springer have been subject to sustained criticism from academics and university libraries, including calls to boycott, and discontinued subscriptions. Mathematicians have played a particularly active…

Many see modern science as having serious defects, intellectual, social, moral. Few see this as having anything to do with the philosophy of science. I argue that many diverse ills of modern science are a consequence of the fact that the…