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Proposal: Theoretical Physics

I Propose: a dedicated sub-section for questions on research and review papers in the field, limited to theoretical and mathematical physics and related pure-mathematics papers only.

Rationale: The goal of the sub-section is to allow a more organised means to ask questions regarding contents in research and review papers, while allowing the posts to both be integrated into and easily identifiable, searchable, and maintainable within the broader TP site.

To illustrate: If a person has a specific question while reading a given paper, she can use the template below to ask that question; if she has multiple questions on the same paper, each question will then require a separate post (with identical referencing info). The sub-section will hopefully both serve as a means to ask questions on specific papers from within the literature, as well as serve the primary purpose of the site.

I think this proposal deserves genuine consideration from the community and is appropriate for this site because this proposed-site is geared towards graduate students, academics and researchers in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.

Format for title:

  • Title: [Paper] <Title of paper>

    Naming priority:

    1. inSPIRE-indexed title
    2. general formatting for papers
      e.g. "How far are we from the quantum theory of gravity?"
      not "How Far are We From the Quantum Theory of Gravity?"

  • In-title pseudo-tags

    • [Paper]
      default; must be included to differentiate from general posts
    • [Paper][Review]
      for review papers

    This system can be further expanded and/or modified as the site progresses.

Format for body:

  • Start with an unlinked url :

    1. inSPIRE
      first priority
    2. arXiv
      if applicable, and inSPIRE url is not applicable
    3. user url
      only when applicable

    use only text for urls: http://inspirebeta.net/record/615514

  • Body of the post — where the question is asked

Format for tags:

  • For inSPIRE-indexed papers
    use the most relevant inSPIRE keywords
    examples: , ,

  • For arXiv-archived papers
    limit to primary classification
    examples: , , , , , , ,

  • Both
    Include both tagging groups
    limit to four most relevant inSPIRE keywords + primary arXiv classification

  • Neither
    use appropriate tagging similar to above
    should be approved by moderator(s) first

  • Notes on tags:
    • they have a maximum length of 25 characters
    • they are all lower case
    • they cannot contain spaces
    • words are separated with dashes (hyphens) or periods
    • posts can contain a maximum of five tags

Example template:

Title: [Paper][Review (when applicable)] <Title of paper>

Body:
Unlinked url

Body of post

Tags:

Example posts:

Title: [Paper][Review] How far are we from the quantum theory of gravity?

Body:
inSPIRE: http://inspirebeta.net/record/615514

Body of post

Tags:

Title: [Paper] A model of leptons

Body:
inSPIRE: http://inspirebeta.net/record/51188

Body of post

Tags:

  • Good, it's better without the discussion/commentary aspect. Make sure to bring this up on the site's Meta when it's launched. – Matthew Read Sep 8 '11 at 20:13
  • The idea seems like a good idea, but would it work within the StackExchange's Q&A framework? – Anonymous Sep 9 '11 at 0:53
  • Yes. This is how it's intended to mesh with the broader TP forum: If someone has a specific question while reading a given paper, she can use the above-provided format to ask that question; if she has multiple questions on the same paper, each question will require a separate post [with the same referencing-info provided]. ... This will both serve as a means to ask questions on specific papers from the literature, as well as serve the primary purpose of the site. ... Furthermore, by providing a comprehensive tagging system, the forum as a whole is more useful to academics / researchers... – UGPhysics Sep 9 '11 at 1:09
  • ... and graduate students, and it is more manageable when, hopefully, the community grows. – UGPhysics Sep 9 '11 at 1:10
  • 1
    Why give a priority to InSPIRE w.r.t. arXiv? The former is restricted to High Energy Physics, while the latter has a much wider scope, and in this sense fits better this generalist Theoretical Physics site... – Yvan Velenik Sep 30 '11 at 16:44

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