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Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited bs_bs_query

Journal Code: ASI Proofreader: Mony

Article No: ASI23238 Delivery date: 24 Mar 2014
Page Extent: 2

Letter to the Editor

A New Type of Misconduct in the Field of the Felici, a pseudonym of Ignazio Ciufolini, who repeatedly
Physical Sciences: The Case of the Pseudonyms submits inappropriate articles under pseudonyms, in viola-
Used by I. Ciufolini to Anonymously Criticize Other tion of arXiv policies.”
People’s Works on arXiv In December 2007, a certain G. Forst, who had never
published anything before, appeared on arXiv. He posted a
manuscript criticizing certain aspects of the GP-B mission.
Dear Sir,
His e-mail, g.forst@yahoo.com, was not an academic one,
In this Letter to the Editor, two cases of fraudulent sci-
and it was not possible to retrieve Forst’s alleged institu-
entific conduct in the field of the physical sciences that
tion, FGP Behrenstr. 1 10117 Berlin, on the Internet. In
occurred in 2007 on the arXiv preprint repository main-
January 2008, arXiv’s moderators retracted Forst’s preprint
tained by Cornell University are reported.
with the following comment: “This submission has been
They pertain the so-called gravitomagnetic frame-
removed because ‘G.Forst’ is a pseudonym of a physicist
dragging, or Lense–Thirring effect, which is a prediction of
based in Italy who is unwilling to submit articles under his
the general theory of relativity about the behavior of gyro-
own name. This is in explicit violation of arXiv policies.
scopes and satellites moving in the gravitational field of a
Roughly similar content, contrasting the relative merits of
rotating body such as, for example, the Earth. It has been the
the LAGEOS and GP-B measurements of the frame-
subject of intense experimental scrutiny in recent years.
dragging effect, can be found in pp. 43–45 of (Ciufolini,
Perhaps the most famous experiment aimed at testing frame-
2007).” Nonetheless, I. Ciufolini was the sole author in the
dragging is the spacecraft-based Gravity Probe B (GP-B)
scientific community who frequently cited Forst’s preprint
mission.1 It was launched in 2004, and its Principal Investi-
in presentations given at international meetings and insti-
gator was F. Everitt. The results of its data analysis were
tutions as well as in preprints and peer-reviewed papers.
finally announced in May 2011, reporting a successful mea-
After 6 years, in September 2013,2 the arXiv’s moderators
surement of the relativistic tiny shifts of the axes of four
altered their original comment by writing “This submission
gyroscopes carried onboard within a claimed margin of
has been removed because ‘G.Forst’ is a pseudonym of
uncertainty of 19%. A direct competitor of GP-B is the
Ignazio Ciufolini, who repeatedly submits inappropriate
ongoing analysis of the laser-ranged observations of the
articles under pseudonyms. This is in explicit violation of
geodetic satellites of the Laser Geodynamics Satellites
arXiv policies. Roughly similar content, contrasting the
(LAGEOS) family performed by I. Ciufolini and coworkers.
relative merits of the LAGEOS and GP-B measurements of
In October 2004, they reported a successful detection of the
the frame-dragging effect, can be found in pp. 43–45 of
Lense–Thirring shift of the satellites’ orbital planes with a
(Ciufolini, 2007).” In May 2011, I. Ciufolini congratulated
claimed 10% accuracy. Since then, such a level of uncer-
the GP-B team after they released their results by stating
tainty often has been questioned in several papers by L. Iorio
that “GP-B was a beautiful and challenging experiment,”
1 and others; it may be larger by a factor of 2 to 3, or perhaps
bs_bs_query

as reported in an online blog run by Nature.

even more. In 2006, L. Iorio suggested that the Lense–
At present, I do not know why arXiv’s moderators dis-
Thirring effect may have been detected by the Mars Global
closed the real identity of G. Felici and G. Forst 6 years after
Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft orbiting Mars with an accuracy
their original submissions.
of a few percent.
In March 2007, a certain G. Felici suddenly popped up
on arXiv. He posted a preprint criticizing the interpretation References
of the MGS data proposed by the author of this Letter.
Ciufolini, I. (2007). Dragging of inertial frames. Nature, 449, 41–47.
G. Felici, who has not published anything before or after
Felici, G. (2007). The meaning of systematic errors: A comment to “Reply
that date, claimed to be based in via Attilio Regolo 2, to On the Systematic Errors in the Detection of the Lense-Thirring Effect
20138, Milano, Italy, and he used the e-mail gia.felici@ with a Mars Orbiter,” by Lorenzo Iorio. ArXiv General Relativity and
yahoo.it To date, his preprint has not been published Quantum Cosmology e-prints, gr-qc/0703020.
in any peer-reviewed journal. In December 2013, the Forst, G. (2007). A critical analysis of the GP-B mission. I: On the impos-
sibility of a reliable measurement of the gravitomagnetic precession of
arXiv’s moderators added the following comment to
the GP-B gyroscopes. ArXiv e-prints, arXiv:0712.3934 [gr-qc].
Felici’s preprint: “This submission has been made by G.
1
1
5
2 See http://einstein.stanford.edu/ 2
3 Personal communication by arXiv’s moderators to this author on 6
4 © 2014 ASIS&T December 19, 2013. 7

JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ••(••):••–••, 2014
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1 L. Iorio
2 Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
3 (M.I.U.R.)-Istruzione
4 Viale Unità di Italia 68
5 70125
6 Bari, Italy
7 E-mail: lorenzo.iorio@libero.it
8
9 Published online in Wiley Online Library
10 (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
11 DOI: 10.1002/asi.23238

2 JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY—•• 2014

DOI: 10.1002/asi
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/Xpp84/wiley_journal/ASI_new/asi_v0_i0/asi_23238

AUTHOR QUERY FORM

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Query Query Remarks

References

1 AUTHOR: Is “of” okay as added?

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