Splitting the atomic scientists: how the Ukraine war ruined physics

At Cern and elsewhere, a reluctance to give Russian researchers authorship credit on new papers has led to stalemate

In normal times, the four large physics experiments using proton collisions at Cern's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland publish numerous scientific articles a year. But in March 2022, the number of new research papers by the LHC experiments fell to zero. The reason: a lack of agreement on how to list Russian and Belarusian scientists and institutes, if at all. The temporary compromise, in place up to now, is not to publish.

Publications are the hard currency of research, used for exchange of information and evidence of individuals' and funding agencies' contributions. The four largest LHC experiments comprise collaborations of thousands of scientists and engineers, with articles typically credited to all members of the project.