Heidelberg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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GP: Fachverband Geschichte der Physik

GP 3: Physics and Media

GP 3.1: Vortrag

Montag, 21. März 2022, 17:00–17:20, GP-H7

From the Preprint Information Exchange to "Computopia:" the development of preprint culture in High Energy Physics — •Arianna Borrelli — Leuphana University Lueneburg, Universitaetsallee 1, 21335 Lueneburg

The term "preprint" has recently become known also among the general public as indicating research papers which are circulated in digital form, but have not (yet) gone through the peer review process. In particular, debates in the biomedical sciences on whether and how far such results should play a role in the management of the pandemics have found large resonance in the media. A look back at the history of printed and digital preprints shows that such discussions are not new and often found a different outcome in the biomedical field, where preprints were long discouraged if not forbidden, and in physics, where preprints became an increasingly important means of academic communication already in the late 20th century.

High-energy physicists were path-breaking in this development and it has been suggested that they traditionally had a more open approach to the diffusion of knowledge than life scientists. Is this really the case? I will offer a brief overview of the growth of preprint culture in physics from the 1960s and its eventual move to the digital sphere, which physicist David Mermin in 1991 hailed as '"Computopia." Comparing these developments with those in other academic fields, I will ask about the historical factors which may help explain the differences and similarities.