The Journal of Scientific Exploration is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of fringe science that was established in 1987. The journal is currently edited by parapsychologist Stephen E. Braude and published by the Society for Scientific Exploration.
According to its mission statement, the journal provides a forum for research on topics "outside the established disciplines of mainstream science." The editors of the journal state that the periodical "publishes claimed observations and proffered explanations that will seem more speculative or less plausible than in some mainstream disciplinary journals. Nevertheless, those observations and explanations must conform to rigorous standards of observational techniques and logical argument." Critics of the journal regard it as a forum for promoting, not investigating, fringe science.
Topics and policies
The journal's website describes the publication's purpose as providing "a professional forum for presentations, criticism, and debate concerning topics which are for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately within mainstream science", and describes the Journal as a "critical forum of rationality and observational evidence for the often strange claims at the fringes of science."
Responding in part to opinion survey results indicating that many mainstream scientists were interested in reasoned examination and debate about unidentified flying objects, the journal was initially established to provide a forum for three main fields that had largely been neglected by mainstream science: ufology, cryptozoology, and parapsychology. It has also published research articles, essays, and book reviews on many other topics, including the philosophy of science, pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, alternative medicine, the process of peer review for controversial topics, astrology, consciousness, reincarnation, minority opinion scientific theories, and paranormal phenomena.
Academic reception
The Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists says that the journal has reports about anomalies in science, particularly in the parapsychological and extraterrestrial fields. Some academics have noted that the journal publishes on anomalous issues, topics often on the fringe of science. The journal is indexed in EBSCO Information Services, which provide a range of library database services. Many of the databases, such as Medline and EconLit, are licensed from content vendors. Others, such as Academic Search, MasterFILE, and Environment Complete, are content licensed directly from publishers and compiled by EBSCO. The journal is not indexed in Web of Science, an indexing service for scientific journals which is told to be highly skewed towards established journals.
Of the Society for Scientific Exploration and Journal of Scientific Exploration, journalist Michael Lemonick writes, "Pretty much anything that might have shown up on The X-Files or in the National Enquirer shows up first here. But what also shows up is a surprising attitude of skepticism."
Kendrick Frazier, editor of Skeptical Inquirer and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellow has suggested that:
- "The JSE, while presented as neutral and objective, appears to hold a hidden agenda. They seem to be interested in promoting fringe topics as real mysteries and they tend to ignore most evidence to the contrary. They publish 'scholarly' articles promoting the reality of dowsing, neo-astrology, ESP, and psychokinesis. Most of the prominent and active members are strong believers in the reality of such phenomena."
Clinical community psychologist and professor of social psychology at the University of Connecticut, Seth Kalichman regards the journal as a publisher of pseudoscience, with the journal serving as a "major outlet for UFOology, paranormal activity, extrasensory powers, alien abductions etc".
Editors-in-chief
Past editors-in-chief have been:
- Ronald A. Howard (Stanford University), founding editor-in-chief, 1987â€"1988
- Bernard Haisch (University of California, Berkeley), 1988â€"1999
- Henry H. Bauer (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), 1999â€"2008
- Peter A. Sturrock (Stanford University), 2008â€"2008
- Stephen E. Braude (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) 2008â€"present
References
External links
- Official website
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