**Ask a monkey a physics question thread**

[MadMojoMonkey]

The gossip I've gathered for the morning:


The "lead" scientist wasn't the lead after all, just the most prestigious name internationally.

The lead scientist I googled was tapped in mid-project to help with theory stuff. This is common in physics research.
He has published dozens of papers and no scandals around him, but his authority in this group is not overarching.


The initial paper published in arxiv *is* scandalous - at least in the authors listed if not in the content.

The initially published paper omits other contributors to the project in what appears to be a dick move to try to force the hand of the Nobel committee. Up to 3 people can share the Nobel Prize in Physics in any given year, and the initially published paper conveniently only listed 3 scientists' names as the authors of the paper.



Which... OK... so the experimental group is excited and nervous about getting their discovery scooped by anyone who knows how darn easy it is to make and test their material and claims. They clearly believe in it so much that they're worried about someone else stealing their credit. So much so that they've committed at least one no-no, scientifically speaking... they published a paper without giving due credit to everyone who contributed.

What other no-no's may they have committed?

[Poopadoop]

The initial paper published in arxiv *is* scandalous - at least in the authors listed if not in the content.

Which... OK... so the experimental group is excited and nervous about getting their discovery scooped by anyone who knows how darn easy it is to make and test their material and claims. They clearly believe in it so much that they're worried about someone else stealing their credit. So much so that they've committed at least one no-no, scientifically speaking... they published a paper without giving due credit to everyone who contributed.

What other no-no's may they have committed?

You would think if they were so concerned about being scooped they'd first send it to a journal for peer review, while keeping it in a private space on the public server (i.e., no-one can view it but they have a record of the date it was uploaded). Putting it on arxiv first means anyone who publishes first can claim they had the first report that passed peer review.