User:MichaelMaggs/Minority science and pseudoscience

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[edit] Minority science and pseudoscience

When considering the weight to be accorded to non-standard theories, we ought to be careful to distinguish between:

1. Pseudoscience – theories that are presented as science but which are not based on the scientific method and which, for that reason, would have no chance of acceptance in a reputable peer-reviewed journal.

2. Minority scientific viewpoints – theories that are based on the scientific method, but which, for whatever reason, have not been generally accepted by the majority of the scientific community. Such theories may have been published in peer reviewed journals.

I believe that these two categories should be treated differently:

[edit] Pseudoscience

No editor seeking to add information about pseudoscience will, of course, ever admit that it is such, nor that the scientific method has been sidestepped or misapplied. Nevertheless, such information cannot and should not be accorded any sort of scientific status, and in particular should never be presented as “just another point of view” on any scientific subject. Rigorous, peer reviewed, scientific research is the bedrock of the scientific method, and should not be treated as just one of a variety of available points of view on the subjects that it addresses.

Pseudoscientific theories, if sufficiently notable, may have a place within Wikipedia as a record of a non-scientific human endeavour. However, pseudoscientific theories should generally not be included or linked to science pages. As with any other material, extreme minority viewpoints and non-notable theories should be excluded entirely as non-encyclopaedic.

[edit] Minority Scientific Viewpoints

Minority scientific viewpoints may, if sufficiently notable, find a place on a corresponding science page. However, this is a matter of degree, and the prominence given to a minority viewpoint ought to be commensurate with the level of acceptance the theory has gained within the worldwide scientific community. Only where there is a real and live disagreement within a significant proportion of the scientific community is it appropriate for the minority view to be given space on a main science page.

Where the minority is so small that it is ignored or derided by the majority of scientists that are active in the field, it should not be discussed on the main science page devoted to the topic, although it may, if sufficiently notable, have a page of its own.

Editors who wish to stress a particular minority theory often try to add detail to a main page by calling the mainstream ideas “disputed”. They then seek to add a discussion of the minority view which starts “…Some scientists, however, disagree and argue that …”. They may cite scientists who hold to this view, and may refer to published papers in peer reviewed journals. Neither is (or should be) enough. All sorts of speculative ideas have appeared in published papers, and have been either disapproved or ignored by the majority of scientists. Thus, the existence of a published paper (or even several) is not in itself sufficient evidence of a real and live disagreement within a significant proportion of the scientific community.

Even the fact that a minority viewpoint may have gained publicity through news outlets such as the BBC should not, in itself, entitle the theory to space on a main science page; any more than a BBC news item would entitle the theory to column inches in the main article of a printed encyclopaedia. News is a branch of journalism and has an entirely different agenda from an encyclopaedia. A minority theory may have a high news value for a large number of reasons, including the weirdness of the ideas being put forward or the vociferousness of its proponents, entirely independently of the scientific validity of the theory itself. Indeed, theories that are widely accepted by everyone are typically not newsworthy, simply because the news media considers them to be boring.

Now it should be perfectly acceptable for a minority scientific theory to be included on a page of its own within Wikipedia on the basis of the notoriety or notability it has achieved through any type of publication, news reports included. Wikipedia is not paper. However, news-type publicity is of close to zero reliability when it comes to establishing that the theory has any realistic support whatsoever within the scientific community. Thus, news reports cannot sensibly be used as reliable sources for the purpose of establishing the verifiability of purported scientific facts.

It is of great importance that extreme minority viewpoints are not permitted to find their way onto main science pages, since most readers will not be experts and a page that labels a field “disputed” will often give the reader a wholly inaccurate perception of the accepted state of scientific knowledge. That is particularly so if (as often happens) the minority theory is heavily referenced, but the majority theory is not. The reader cannot be expected to realise that there are (say) 10 scientists worldwide who support the minority view, but 100,000 who consider it so wrong as not to be worth addressing.

This is not a case of “mainstream scientists” being “pseudosceptical” or seeking to suppress minority viewpoints. Rather, it follows from the absolute need to give readers a fair and unbiased view of the currently accepted state of scientific knowledge.

Any minority scientific theory (provided that it is sufficiently notable to be encyclopaedic at all) ought to be entitled to a page of its own where, of course, it may be subject to challenge by the majority who disagree with it. However, unless the minority theory is of sufficient importance to have generated a real and live disagreement within a significant proportion of the scientific community, it should not expect to be granted space on one of the main science pages.

If that sounds unfair, it is for a reason: extreme minority viewpoints are simply not as encyclopaedically important as the general consensus of the scientific community, and they should not be treated as if they are. There is no true parity here.

Several editors have suggested that by excluding extreme minority theories from the main science pages, we run the risk of excluding research which, while derided or ignored today, will one day be accepted and itself become mainstream. That is almost certainly so, but we should be attempting to reflect the state of scientific knowledge as it stands today, not trying to second guess which neglected theories will “make it”. For every unjustly neglected theory, there are many thousands of justly neglected ones, and apart from relying on scientific consensus, we have no way of judging which are which. An encyclopaedia cannot and should not substitute its judgement for the consensus of the scientists working in the field.

Wikipedia is not at present a very congenial place for those scientific editors who are striving hard to present a fair and balanced view of the current state of scientific knowledge. Typically, editors having an interest in minority viewpoints tend to be more persistent than editors who follow mainstream thinking, and are certainly more numerous (probably because there are so many minority viewpoints).

It is largely, I believe, because of these issues that there are so few good, knowledgeable, scientific editors working on Wikipedia. Such editors are sorely needed: without their continuous and unstinting efforts to keep the main science pages focused and balanced, we will continue to see articles such as Physics destroyed by a never-ending stream of single-issue editors. The policies we work to should be devised to encourage experienced and knowledgeable scientists to create top-quality scientific articles. But I am afraid that many drop by, but are driven away pretty quickly when they realise that they have to spend all of their time preventing even articles on well-understood topics from fragmenting into to a collection of minority viewpoint theories, each eager to characterize everything else as “disputed”.

We should bear in mind the danger of this entire project collapsing if serious scientific editors continue to be driven away. It would be only too easy for the public to lose confidence in Wikipedia if they are unable to find within it reliable and unbiased articles which explain clearly the current state of scientific knowledge on a topic that interests them. I believe this to be a real and present danger.

--MichaelMaggs 15:31, 17 October 2006 (UTC)