weburbia said:@JaredJames, in one recent case I exposed the identity of an anonymous reviewer who criticized viXra. He quickly apologized, admitted he was wrong and removed his criticism (see http://blog.vixra.org/2011/03/30/new-anti-crackpot-on-the-block/) I think that says it all.
weburbia said:By the way there are also a fair number of people with .edu e-mail addresses who use viXra.org and even more from universities in non-US countries.
Credibility comes through other forms or recognition such as peer-reviewed publication and citations. It does not matter that people do not browse viXra.org as much as arXiv.org. In fact most people probably find papers relevant to their research either through citations or through keyword searches on Google.
If the idea is obviously any good they will just copy it and give you no credit. If it is good but ahead of its time they will just ignore you until someone with a better reputation rediscovers the idea and publishes it, leaving you with no claim to priority.
weburbia said:Obviously its a blog by me. Its where I revealed his name and the original review was deleted as I explained to you.
When someone glibly says "Don't use vixra, it smells like crackpot. No one will read whatever you have to contribute if you put it there" then I certainly have the right to come here and defend it. If you think you found a review that supports this statement then provide a link and I will criticize that too.
I am still waiting for someone to "back up their claims" by answering the points I made in my response.
cristo said:I find this very hard to believe. Anyone with a university email address can submit to the arxiv without needed to be sponsored (or whatever they call it).
cristo said:So, why are vixra articles not added to citation databases such as SPIRES? If it really were a credible website, then citations from your articles would be recognised as such.
cristo said:You seem to really misunderstand how research is conducted.
JaredJames said:I will not perpetuate you here. You are free to search yourself. It was only mentioned because it supported the claims made when you said they were baseless.
Again, I am not here to attack your site.
Pengwuino said:Hmm since when did having a .edu address certify you as a non-crackpot? You could be some philosophy major who thinks they've discovered a theory of everything and be eligible to post on arxiv.
weburbia said:Where did I say that? I agree that arXiv has plenty of controversial papers.
However I don't share your implied disdain for philosophers which is quite a give-away. People with such narrow viewpoints often produce this kind of empty criticism based on rhetoric rather than sound arguments.
weburbia,weburbia said:I am an administrator from viXra.org (Philip Gibbs) so what I am going to say is biased. However, my sincere advice is to ignore people who try to put you off archiving your work there.
Firstly notice that the detractors are always anonymous. Don't put any weight on people who criticize anonymously because they are not prepared to stand by there claims and do not put much thought into them. There are plenty of respectable academics who acknowledge that viXra.org is a useful service (at least to me privately).
Secondly, it is easy to find poor quality papers on viXra but there are many good papers there too. Most of the papers are too specialized for many people to judge them so people go on the few simpler ones they do understand. A good proportion have been published in peer review journals even though many of the scienitsts who use viXra.org do not have the usual academic incentives to do so. By the way there are also a fair number of people with .edu e-mail addresses who use viXra.org and even more from universities in non-US countries.
Finally, it is not the purpose of a preprint archive to give your work credibility. It is there to record and preserve the work long term, and to make it available quickly through open access to as many people as possible. Your priority is independently recorded in case someone else copies or rediscovers the idea afterwards. Credibility comes through other forms or recognition such as peer-reviewed publication and citations. It does not matter that people do not browse viXra.org as much as arXiv.org. In fact most people probably find papers relevant to their research either through citations or through keyword searches on Google.
If you do not intend to submit to a peer-review journal and you do not have access to an arXiv endorser then viXra.org is your best bet for an independent long-term archive. If you want more recognition you will also need to promote your work through blogs or forums, just make sure you use appropriate places. Do not give up on the idea of peer-review publication. There are lots of online journals that do not require payment. They may not have the highest impact factors but they can still give some useful feedback on your work, and even a little credibility if they accept it.
The worst thing you can do is keep your work hidden and "seek out collaborators". If the idea is obviously any good they will just copy it and give you no credit. If it is good but ahead of its time they will just ignore you until someone with a better reputation rediscovers the idea and publishes it, leaving you with no claim to priority.
eri said:I second Jared's request.
John37309 said:Guys its good to talk openly about the scientific publishing process. And how people can overcome any difficulty they have with publishing. The system should be open to everyone, not just academics who do scientific studies for a living. Science is for everyone, not just the elite.
Yep, thanks for your help Jared. I will let you guys know in the next month or 2 once I'm ready. I will give you guys a link.JaredJames said:Science is open to everyone, but you have to realize that the current state of things means it just isn't within the scope of the average joe.
The current checks and balances are there to ensure people aren't just barreling in and repeating / producing flawed work.
As long as you follow scientific method and you are sure of your subject matter, getting it to other people to check is easy and then you're away, qualifications or not.
They key thing to realize is that the chances of someone without qualifications in the subject (or at least no formal training) coming up with a major breakthrough are slim to none. Don't confuse the scientists of years ago with those of today. Things are very different.
Again, we would all really appreciate you linking to the work and I hope you do so in good time.
eri said:I feel obliged to point out that the vast majority of scientists who use arXiv will not look at viXra.
eri said:Feel free to put it there, but if you want anyone to read it and use it, you're still better off trying to get it published in a journal, and if you can do that you'll have no trouble getting it endorsed for arXiv. And if your work truly is mainstream science, you should have no trouble getting it published.
weburbia said:I agree that seeking to get it published in a journal is a good idea, however you underestimate how difficult that can be for someone with no academic affiliation.
Publishing in high impact factor journals seems to be very difficult and possibly expensive for outsiders, even when the work is mainstream. There are low impact factor journals that are easier to get into but they also give less impact.
eri said:While ApJ does publish close to 80% of submissions, they won't take everything you send them. As a referee for them, I've recommended several papers not be published for various reasons. They simply tend to get fairly high-quality submissions in the first place, and do have a high impact factor in astrophysics.
I have no academic affiliation and publish a half-dozen papers per year or so. The only difficulty is that people w/o academic affiliations rarely have anything of high enough quality to pass peer review. Those that do have high quality research and writing have no more difficulty getting published than their academic counterparts.weburbia said:you underestimate how difficult that can be for someone with no academic affiliation. Publishing in high impact factor journals seems to be very difficult and possibly expensive for outsiders.