Braun Tibor, Schubert András (szerk.): Szakértői bírálat (peer review) a tudományos kutatásban : Válogatott tanulmányok a téma szakirodalmából (A MTAK Informatikai És Tudományelemzési Sorozata 7., 1993)
MARTIN RUDERFER: The Fallacy of Peer Review: Judgement without Science and a Case History
178 RUDER I ER: T IIK I'A I.I ACY O l PEER REVIEW This misinterpretation of existing theory resulted in the following: (i) The only available heuristic route to explore the Cannon-Jensen finding became the unconventional consideration of one-way propagation effects, (ii) Because the most advanced one-way theory, that of Ives (pp. 388-9), was based on the largely ignored Lorentz-ether formalism, a further unconventionality resulted. (iii) The supporting connection to the Sagnac effect which followed from Ives' little known rigorous analysis 12 9 > added another element of unconventionality. (iv) The findings are not a result of Lorentz invariance, as conventionally assumed in the rejected paper, but are ultimately shown in the follow-up paper (p.418) to be properly described as not in conflict with Lorentz invariance. (v) The obvious connection of one-way theory to the Hafele-Keating experiment was denied by the latter's premature widespread affirmation of relativistic clock behaviour combined with the neglect of one-way propagation fostered by Einstein's definition of simultaneity, (vi) All these coalesced to reduce the probability of acceptance by the referees. Thus the final resolution of rotating clock behaviour stimulated by the Cannon-Jensen finding involved a series of considerations leading inevitably to rectification of a prevalent misinterpretation which, however, served to block the dissemination of the very considerations by which it could be eventually rectified. This required paradigm shift becomes the basic origin of the review rejection and shows the original paper to be more revolutionary than evolutionary. Extension of equation (1) beyond Moon and Sun to the Galaxy is also found in the follow-up paper to show the absolute motions of Sun and Galaxy to be within reach (Fig.8, p.414). This should allow, in time and by tightening of the UTC coordination process, a more accurate measure of these motions than by the difficult astronomical methods. The small solar gravitational effect (p. 400) must, of course, be included in any complete evaluation of annual residuals from ellipticity of Earth's orbit. For a clock on Earth or Sun with respect to a clock at rest in the universal frame, the kinematic effect in equation (1) also explains the relatively large drifts between the various time standards (pp. 415-6). This is of practical importance in astronomy where Earth, solar and atomic time scales have up to now been coordinated empirically. The suggestion of an acceleration origin of the still unexplained large quasar emission line-widths (Ref.12, p.420) follows from equation (12) (p. 391), which was not otherwise applied in the analyses. The data also allows a long-distance upper limit to departure from the isotropy of c, as assumed by Einstein and in the analyses, which is determined by the residuals in Fig.8 (p. 414) after all other annual effects are deducted. Most important, the ability of second-order aberration to measure absolute motion of relatively rotating clocks is a validation of an absolute reference frame for light propagation (p.418) which provides a direct confirmation of the Lorentz (relativistic) ether (pp. 391-2). This is supported by the recent measurement of the anisotropy in the cosmic background radiation which has been claimed to demonstrate existence of a "new ether" 13 1 >. However, there is nothing new about it since there can only be one such ether frame at rest in the universe — the Lorentz ether already known to be identifiable with the cosmic reference frame for acceleration (p.392).
