Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mario Rabinowitz

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. The only keep !vote notes that the subject almost meets notability guidelines or that a case could be made, but the consensus is that such a case has not been made. Rlendog (talk) 16:33, 25 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mario Rabinowitz

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This article may not satisfy the criteria of Wikipedia:Notability (academics). Rabinowitz has published many papers and holds many patents, but it's not clear that his impact rises to the level of notability required. I am not voting for deletion of the page at present, but would like to start a solid debate on whether it qualifies. The article appears to have been created by Rabinowitz himself, or someone closely associated with him, using several sockpuppet accounts. Srleffler (talk) 02:17, 10 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Weak keep He has published numerous papers which are documented online and he exists. I think we can assume he's notable enough in his field of study and a wikipedia article on him is merited....although he does have a low profile. But one should judge a scholar by the number of quality papers which he publishes. --Artene50 (talk) 08:37, 10 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

In academia, one judges a scholar by the number of papers he publishes, and where they are published. That is, however, not Wikipedia's standard. We care about how many people are reading (and citing) a scholar's papers. Notability is determined by the influence a scholar's work has on others, not on the volume of that work.--Srleffler (talk) 03:31, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Weak delete At the moment I don't see any evidence that he meets WP:SCHOLAR or WP:WRITER. A lot of papers, but none with >50 citations according to Google Scholar. One self-published book, which has got a little coverage[1] but not enough for notability requirements. Adjunct professor. Lack of discussion in 3rd-party sources, with most web hits being articles/papers by him. It can be hard to tell if someone's made a major contribution to a small field of study, which might make them meet notability requirements, and I've no specific knowledge of his field, but more proof is required. --Colapeninsula (talk) 10:18, 10 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Science-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 00:51, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 00:51, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 00:52, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. With h-index of circa 18 and top cites of 94 satisfies WP:Prof#C1 for this field of scholarship. However article is overly promotional and could do with being cut to 20% of present length. Xxanthippe (talk) 01:25, 11 July 2012 (UTC).[reply]

If you want to count citations, you have to exclude patents. The publication with 94 citations is a patent, not a scientific paper. I don't have access to a proper scientific citations database, but the Google Scholar results (excluding patents) indicate an h-number of 10, which is certainly too low to qualify as notable on that basis alone. Microsoft Academic Search, gives him an h-index of 4. --Srleffler (talk) 03:29, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That is a fair comment and I change my vote. Patents probably ought to be given some weight but there is not enough here. Xxanthippe (talk) 04:00, 11 July 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Delete not notable, shotgun spray of papers and patents on the cause de jour is not notability. Greglocock (talk) 03:44, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete I change my vote. Perhaps it is better to delete his article given the low number of citations this person gets in the scholarly community. --Artene50 (talk) 08:28, 11 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. This is an interesting case. If you consider the patents, the subject has an h-index of 17 on GS. I would argue that the subject almost meets WP:PROF criterion #7 (substantial impact outside academia in academic capacity). The problem is that he is not an academic, strictly speaking, even though his involvement with the IEEE Trans. is typical of an academic. One could also make a case for meeting WP:PROF criterion #1 (significant impact in scholarly discipline, broadly construed), as many of the patent citations are from researchers.--Eric Yurken (talk) 20:13, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm very interested in the question of whether he has made a notable impact outside academia. This is part of why I hesitated a long time before bringing the article to AfD. He has published a lot, and it is hard to judge from the material available whether that has had any impact. I don't think it is justifiable, though, to look at an h-index that includes patents. Patents are not reliable sources (except as evidence that something was patented), nor are they peer-reviewed publications. Patents cite each other for reasons not related to a researcher/engineer/inventor having read and been influenced by the cited work. The patent lawyer's job includes citing all other relevant patents. The person applying for the patent frequently will not have read the cited works in advance.

Skimming through the list of citations to the patent with the most of them, I don't see any citations on the first ten pages of listings which are not either other patents, or articles by Rabinowitz. This is not unexpected. It's not all that common for academics to cite patents other than their own.--Srleffler (talk) 22:21, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for this explanation of the citing practices of patents. However, looking at the patent with 94 cites, I find that most of the cites are from persons other than the subject. Xxanthippe (talk) 22:38, 14 July 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Yes, but every one (in the first ten pages) that is a cite from someone other than the subject is a citation from another patent. This is not evidence that Rabinowitz' work has had any influence on anyone. There is no reason to think, for example, that the other inventors whose patents cite Rabinowitz's actually read or even were aware of his work. The citations are put in by the lawyers.--Srleffler (talk) 01:11, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Another fair comment. Xxanthippe (talk) 02:12, 21 July 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, — Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:15, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Delete article shows no evidence of subject meeting WP:GNG. It doesn't matter how much one has written, only what is published about one in reliable independent sources. Stuartyeates (talk) 00:42, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.