Can a layman publish a scientific paper?

[twofish-quant]

That is exactly the point that I was making. Did you even read my post? Just asking...

Yes and I was largely agreeing with your post.

One problem with data mining databases is that you have to be *really* careful in making conclusions.

Also, one problem with the question is that if you get yourself to the point that you can publish, you aren't really a layman. My best guess is that 80% of the people in the world, with the right motivation and with infinite access to resources can get to the point that with a few years of exposure to science get to the point that they can publish professional level research.

 

[twofish-quant]

You do not need academic or professional credentials to publish serious scientific papers. You just need to do careful meticulous work and come up with something unique or "new" in some sense.

It also works the other way. I have academic and professional credentials, but I'm not currently in a position to publish anything serious because I don't have the time, energy, and social networks. In order to publish something in a field that I've already worked in, it would take me about month to catch up, then three months to get some data, and then three more months of full time work, and it's hard because I'm not in a position to have co-authors.

Part of it is that there are no formal restrictions. You send the paper to ApJ, and that's it. The problem is that before I can publish something, it has to pass "internal peer review." I have to convince myself that it's worth publishing, because if it has my name on it, and I think it's garbage, then I'm going to be ashamed and embarrassed even if no one else cares.

It might be possible to "crowd-source" science, and one thing about Wikipedia is that you get a lot of professionals working on it because

1) there is no minimum time commitment. I've been using wikipedia for my work, and when I find an error, I fix it, and that takes five minutes.
2) anonymity helps a lot. One thing about having a professional paper is that before I sign something, I'd going to quadrulpe check it to make sure that I don't see anything stupidly embarrassing. On wikipedia, if I say something really dumb, someone fixes it and everyone forgets.

 

[Pythagorean]

No you don't. However, technically you don't have to have any credentials to compose a symphony orchestra, climb Mount Everest, play chess at the grandmaster level, or swim the English Channel, but your odds of doing it without any prior experience is pretty close to nil.



If...

I hope you realize you're preaching to the choir; I intentionally put a giant conditional after the if. It was supposed to come off as a daunting task! if you're intentionally preaching to the choir, though, then hallelujah!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Yes.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40782104/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/science-journal-publishes-study--year-olds/"