Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#1

Post by FullMetalJason » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 8:21 PM UTC

Looking for guidelines to self-publish in various journals/conferences(especially related to computer science). Most of the wisdom related to processes in this space is passed on in a streamlined way to incoming grad students and researchers in an academic setting. But let's say I am a clerk sitting in a patent office and I have few experiments that I worked on with thorough proofs and results. How do I get this officially published(not about formats but about the processes)? In general, these are my questions(TIA):

1. How to choose journals/conferences to publish? 2. Do top publications prefer submissions from universities only? (What's the ground reality here?) 3. Any blogs/articles explaining in detail about this? 4. Would Arxiv let me publish without associating myself with a university?

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#2

Post by tlb » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 8:37 PM UTC

No university affiliation is required by arXiv or any other journal I know of. You should put some affiliation, but it can be your own thing like _Full Metal Jason Labs_.

However, it's hard to write well for an audience in a given field without having gone to grad school in that field. Readers will sense that your paper is from an outsider. So stick to topics that people will believe an outsider about. Proofs and working systems are good, criticisms of common methodologies are bad.

When you publish, especially on arXiv, you still have to get people to read it. Zero people wake up in the morning thinking "I'll just browse for new papers from people I've never heard of." You might email a few authors of recent papers you're citing saying, "Hey, I really liked your paper on ___. I've just published something related on arXiv that addresses a problem you mention in your future work section..."

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#3

Post by FullMetalJason » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 8:59 PM UTC

tlb wrote: post #2

No university affiliation is required by arXiv or any other journal I know of. You should put some affiliation, but it can be your own thing like _Full Metal Jason Labs_. However, it's hard to write well for an audience in a given field without having gone to grad school in that field. Readers will sense that your paper is from an outsider. So stick to topics that people will believe an outsider about. Proofs and wor…

Thank you for the pointers. How do PhD admissions look at self-publications? What are your thoughts on below two situations evaluated by the admissions committee at a good university(say MIT/Caltech)?

1. A strong LOR from a PI managing a known lab(but with few moderate pubs on my name) vs. 2. No great LORs but self-publishing one or two good papers(quantified with good number of citations and overall quality)

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#4

Post by chatmasta » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

FullMetalJason wrote: post #3

tlb wrote: post #2

No university affiliation is required by arXiv or any other journal I know of. You should put some affiliation, but it can be your own thing like _Full Metal Jason Labs_. However, it's hard to write well for an audience in a given field without having gone to grad school in that field. Readers will sense that your paper is from an outsider. So stick to topics that people will believe an outsider about. Proofs and wor…

Thank you for the pointers. How do PhD admissions look at self-publications? What are your thoughts on below two situations evaluated by the admissions committee at a good university(say MIT/Caltech)? 1. A strong LOR from a PI managing a known lab(but with few moderate pubs on my name) vs. 2. No great LORs but self-publishing one or two good papers(quantified with good number of citations and overall quality)

It's definitely better to have a strong LOR from a PI, even moreso from a PI at the school to which you're applying. "No great LORs but self-publishing" can be shortened to "no great LORs."

Why do you see these things as mutually exclusive? You could self-publish and use it as an "in" to working for a PI over the summer. If you do well and the PI likes you, they likely have a lot of sway with admissions and can help you get into whatever grad program they work with.

Disclaimer: Never applied/went to grad school but know many people who did... I've seen the strategy I described work at a high tier school.

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#5

Post by mlevental » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 9:49 PM UTC

FullMetalJason wrote: post #3

tlb wrote: post #2

No university affiliation is required by arXiv or any other journal I know of. You should put some affiliation, but it can be your own thing like _Full Metal Jason Labs_. However, it's hard to write well for an audience in a given field without having gone to grad school in that field. Readers will sense that your paper is from an outsider. So stick to topics that people will believe an outsider about. Proofs and wor…

Thank you for the pointers. How do PhD admissions look at self-publications? What are your thoughts on below two situations evaluated by the admissions committee at a good university(say MIT/Caltech)? 1. A strong LOR from a PI managing a known lab(but with few moderate pubs on my name) vs. 2. No great LORs but self-publishing one or two good papers(quantified with good number of citations and overall quality)

papers in top journals/conferences supervene everything but let's be realistic: if you're asking here you're probably not publishing in nature/annals/nips etc so unless there's something else exceptional about you (that you're publishing in mediocre journals as a high school student) LORs would carry more weight.

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#6

Post by gus_massa » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 11:42 PM UTC

A clerk sitting in a patent office with a PhD or without a PhD?

To be more specific: Do you have a degree in the university? In which field? Is it related to what you want to publish?

In which field yo want to publish? In physics they like papers in journals. In computer science, they like conference presentations.

Beware that there are many predatory journals that publish any article if you pay the fee. Nobody cares about them, it's borderline a scam.

From the other comment:

> Proofs and working systems are good, criticisms of common methodologies are bad.

I agree. Be very clear about what is your new result. It is very difficult to convince people about something like "Quantum Mechanics is wrong" unless you have a big trajectory or a very solid proof. It is easier if you have a new algorithm that outperforms the 2 or 3 more popular algorithms in the 2 or 3 more popular benchmarks.

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#7

Post by gatherhunterer » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 1:54 AM UTC

https://arxiv.org/help/submit

It looks like registering for Arxiv involves naming your institution but it is not described as a strict requirement. Why not give it a shot? Take a direct approach. Try to mimic the tone they are used to and be respectful, acting like you belong can go a long way. I imagine that existing work would be valued over soft qualifications. If you have work that belongs there I can’t see why they would turn you away. Try the same thing with other publishers that interest you.

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#8

Post by tlb » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 3:24 AM UTC

FullMetalJason wrote: post #3

tlb wrote: post #2

No university affiliation is required by arXiv or any other journal I know of. You should put some affiliation, but it can be your own thing like _Full Metal Jason Labs_. However, it's hard to write well for an audience in a given field without having gone to grad school in that field. Readers will sense that your paper is from an outsider. So stick to topics that people will believe an outsider about. Proofs and wor…

Thank you for the pointers. How do PhD admissions look at self-publications? What are your thoughts on below two situations evaluated by the admissions committee at a good university(say MIT/Caltech)? 1. A strong LOR from a PI managing a known lab(but with few moderate pubs on my name) vs. 2. No great LORs but self-publishing one or two good papers(quantified with good number of citations and overall quality)

In most schools, PhD admissions are mostly decided by the profs you'd be working for, and they are well-equipped to judge papers on their contents, not where they're published. They may also assign papers to their grad students (your future colleagues) to read and rank. In either case, they're being read by people who know the literature and hope to find people they'll be able to do good work with.

I myself don't put much faith in LoRs unless they're from someone I know pretty well. Other people differ.

If you're sure you can produce a good paper, I think that's better than a LoR. But research can be hit-or-miss.

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#9

Post by FullMetalJason » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 4:50 AM UTC

gus_massa wrote: post #6

A clerk sitting in a patent office with a PhD or without a PhD? To be more specific: Do you have a degree in the university? In which field? Is it related to what you want to publish? In which field yo want to publish? In physics they like papers in journals. In computer science, they like conference presentations. Beware that there are many predatory journals that publish any article if you pay the fee. Nobody cares…

Thanks! I have Masters in CS from a state uni(Have a thesis in Machine learning). Been in industry(FAANG) for 2 years as an ML engineer(I know that's not a great track to be in for research). But I am very much interested in getting into core research teams like FAIR / Google Research as a Research Scientist(trust me when I say that the teams set the bar very clearly with an entry minimum of phd though you are exceptional as an ML engineer and they are highly attached to certain unis too. That's reality). I am not in the 99th percentile with my grades though(3.5/4.0). I understand that's also an important factor with admissions. So I am working on boosting my profile up with some good pubs. Pointers?

Re: Ask HN: How to Publish on Your Own?

#10

Post by FullMetalJason » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 4:52 AM UTC

gatherhunterer wrote: post #7

https://arxiv.org/help/submit It looks like registering for Arxiv involves naming your institution but it is not described as a strict requirement. Why not give it a shot? Take a direct approach. Try to mimic the tone they are used to and be respectful, acting like you belong can go a long way. I imagine that existing work would be valued over soft qualifications. If you have work that belongs there I can’t see why t…

I guess that's one way to move forward :) Thanks! Will give that a shot then.