PhysicsOverflow: Difference between revisions

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'''PhysicsOverflow''' is a [[physics]] website that serves as a [[Scholarly peer review#Postpublication|post-publication open peer review]]<ref name="faq">{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/faq|title=FAQ - PhysicsOverflow|website=physicsoverflow.org}}</ref> platform for [[academic paper|research papers]] in physics, as well as a [[collaborative blog]] and [[online community]] of physicists. It allows users to ask, answer and comment on graduate-level physics questions, post and review manuscripts from [[ArXiv]] (which lists PhysicsOverflow discussion pages among its trackbacks<ref>{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/30425|title=We have ArXiV trackbacks!|first=|last=dimension10|date=23 April 2015|website=PhysicsOverflow}}</ref>) and other sources, and vote on both forms of content.

In addition to the two primary forms of content, the PhysicsOverflow community also welcomes discussions on [[List of unsolved problems in physics|unsolved problems]], and hosts a chat section for discussions on topics generally of interest to physicists and students of physics, such as those related to recent events in physics, physics academia, and the publishing process.<ref name="faq"/>

==History==

PhysicsOverflow was started in April 2014 as a physics-equivalent of [[MathOverflow]] by Rahel Knöpfel, a physics PhD at the [[University of Rostock]], high-school student Abhimanyu Pallavi Sudhir, and Roger Cattin, a retired professor of computer science at the [[Fachhochschule|University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland]].<ref name="faq"/> The site was initially a mere question-and-answer forum, as it was started by users dissatisfied by the policies of the [[Stack Exchange|Physics Stack Exchange]], but it was eventually expanded to include a ''Reviews'' section in October 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/24235|title=The reviews section is out of beta!|first1=|last1=dimension10|first2=Ron|last2=Maimon|date=5 October 2014|website=PhysicsOverflow}}</ref>

==Moderation practices==

PhysicsOverflow is well-known for its liberal moderation policy and hesitation to block contributors except for spam, as reflected in the website's bill of "user rights".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6196/what-is-physics-overflow-and-how-is-it-linked-to-physics-se|title=What is Physics Overflow and how is it linked to Physics.SE?|website=Physics Meta Stack Exchange}}</ref><ref name="physicsoverflow.org">{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/user-rights|title=User Rights - PhysicsOverflow|website=physicsoverflow.org}}</ref> The content is largely community-moderated, much like MathOverflow, although exceptions have been recorded.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/31863|title=Violation of policy to close questions?|first1=|last1=drake|first2=|last2=Dilaton|first3=|last3=dimension10|date=10 June 2015|website=PhysicsOverflow}}</ref><ref name="https://physicsoverflow.org/review">{{Cite web | url=https://physicsoverflow.org/review |title = Moderate &#124; PhysicsOverflow}}</ref>

Although the site's moderation policy is publicly available as part of the moderator manual, the site has been criticised for the excessive dispersion of policy-related material, such as the FAQ, the Bill of Rights, the moderator list and the Community Moderation threads, leading to reduced transparency.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6196/what-is-physics-overflow-and-how-is-it-linked-to-physics-se|title=What is Physics Overflow and how is it linked to Physics.SE?|website=Physics Meta Stack Exchange}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/22268|title=Who are the Physics Overflow moderators, and what is their exact role and powers?|first1=|last1=SaddlePoint|first2=|last2=Dilaton|first3=Ron|last3=Maimon|date=14 August 2014|website=PhysicsOverflow}}</ref> In response, the site's administrators posted a bulletin of all moderation-related content on the site on the homepage.

==Technical details==

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==Recognition==

The creation of PhysicsOverflow was well-received by the [[MathOverflow]] community.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/1608/physicsoverflow-just-went-live|title=PhysicsOverflow just went live|website=MathOverflow Meta}}</ref> PhysicsOverflow was also featured at the 5th Offtopicarium<ref>{{cite web|url=https://physicsoverflow.org/22788|title=We have a talk at the Offtopicarium !|first=|last=Dilaton|date=24 August 2014|website=PhysicsOverflow}}</ref> and [[World Scientific]]'s Asia-Pacific Physics News Letter.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2251158X15000193|title=PhysicsOverflow: A postgraduate-level physics Q&A site and open peer review system|first1=Abhimanyu|last1=Pallavi Sudhir|first2=Rahel|last2=Knöpfel|date=23 October 2015|publisher=|journal=Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter|volume=04|issue=011|pages=53–55|via=worldscientific.com (Atypon)|doi=10.1142/S2251158X15000193}}</ref>

* [[John Baez]] suggested the website as a platform for discussing research-level physics questions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/books.html|title=books|website=math.ucr.edu}}</ref>

* Greg Bernhardt, the founder of PhysicsForums, acknowledged the site as a "very interesting development for the physics discussion communities".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://motls.blogspot.com/2013/08/discussion-on-old-and-new-theoretical.html|title=The Reference Frame: Discussion about old and new theoretical physics forums|first=Luboš|last=Motl|date=14 August 2013|publisher=}}</ref>