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Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

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Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#71
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are publicly known. But I would say most paper requirements are "necessarily complicated", simply because science is hard. Writing a scientific paper requires both solid science (both good results and good scientific practices) and solid writing skills to convey an important idea in a clear and precise way. Mastering both aspects requires time and effort. An academic author is a person who made a job out of it.…

>Writing a scientific paper requires both solid science (both good results and good scientific practices) and solid writing skills to convey an important idea in a clear and precise way. The only person who would read a journal paper and say that the the author has good writing skills is another academic. No one outside of the research community would look at a typical journal paper and claim that the writing skills…

(1) and (2) greatly depend on field. A lot of people are discouraged using the active voice in, for example, an academic thesis because it allows the nasty question of "So how much of this did you do?" and writing "I did this" comes off as a bit weird. In journal papers the use of the active voice is slowly improving. I still find it a bit odd that people use we for single author work, but that's probably just ingrained.

To address point (3) a common route is to add an appendix or supplementary material. This is commonly done in deep learning for derivatives of novel functions so that others can implement the backward pass. Whether you can get it past a supervisor is another issue entirely! A blog post or accompanying website is an easy option.

(4) is another tricky one. How many times have you read "Deep learning has revolutionised " followed by the usual citing of Hinton, Le Cun, Krizhevsky et al.? The spiel is identical in every paper, how many ways can you describe this stuff after all? At some point you just have to assume that the reader is familiar with the background, but you still have to cite everyone to keep the reviewers happy.

Again, if you need exposition, write a blog post about it.

(This isn't just for deep learning - every field I've worked in suffers from the same copy-pasta introduction.)

This also depends again on field anyway - some journals are much more approachable than others. Nature and Science, controversy aside, generally publish very readable papers.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#72
post #46
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the 'requirements' that are being referred to go well beyond objective rules (e.g., no more than 4 journal formatted pages) and include things like lingo, citation standards, ordering of sections, and general academic writing voice. Written communication of science is hard, especially when you are new to it. I think a good 50% of what I have learned as a PhD student was how to more effectively communicate through wri…

It's worth mentioning that some of those standards may not be producing the best outcomes (see https://lemire.me/blog/2017/08/15/on-melissa-oneills-pcg-ran... , for example). In my own experience, I once wrote a paper in a much more casual and approachable style. I had what I felt was the same scientific rigor around the experiments and data, but tried to make the text more generally readable. I had Simpson's referen…

I totally TOTALLY agree. I was trying to stay away from offering value judgement and be a little more descriptive. it is not necessarily effective, but, it is.

I have done similar things, with similar reactions. I think such approaches in fact negatively impact science...especially through the public's engagement with it. Perhaps my 'favorite' was trying to do a conference session about active learning using...active learning. Got told that it was unprofessional and that those listening were 'peers not students'.

There was a really wonderful paper on academia I read not long ago[1] that basically made the argument that a darwinian biology framework basically explained all this. It basically asked the question what is a defense that arose to solve a problem, and has now transformed into what looks like a defect...and how do we separate those (or should we) from actual defects. Today I stumbled across a similar article which discussed

[1] Lohmann, S. (2004). Darwinian medicine for the university. Governing Academia: Who Is in Charge at the Modern University, 71-90.

[2] ...and of course I can't re-find it. I'll update if I do.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#73

One idea, crowd-fund your research using: Experiment https://experiment.com Then publish with PLoS

You don't need money to publish on PLoS, strictly speaking. If you are not currently funded to do the research you are seeking to publish, you can request a waiver of the author page charges.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#74
post #52

Since you mention that you are a "dropout", another interesting path to consider is to use your publications to eventually get a PhD. Since in many countries there is a financial incentive for universities to deliver people with a PhD title, it should be easy to find a professor and committee willing to help you get a PhD, once you have a number of publications. But you should choose your publication channels wisely…

Do you think I could possible use this path for psychology?

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 18 and bipolar at 31. I spent a few years doing research to create an alternate model of understanding and experimenting on myself have had amazing success without psychiatric medications.

I've also helped other people through sharing my experience and coaching them.

When I shared my story with Rick Doblin from maps.org he said he felt my particular application of using MDMA would spur new lines of research.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#75
post #74
post #52

Since you mention that you are a "dropout", another interesting path to consider is to use your publications to eventually get a PhD. Since in many countries there is a financial incentive for universities to deliver people with a PhD title, it should be easy to find a professor and committee willing to help you get a PhD, once you have a number of publications. But you should choose your publication channels wisely…

Do you think I could possible use this path for psychology? I was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 18 and bipolar at 31. I spent a few years doing research to create an alternate model of understanding and experimenting on myself have had amazing success without psychiatric medications. I've also helped other people through sharing my experience and coaching them. When I shared my story with Rick Doblin from maps.org…

Ps, I have a BA in Psychology and an MS in Urban and Regional Planning with a focus on community development.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For this one, the host university did roll their own, on the basis of some form-generating service that Google offers. Note that here I was speaking about a conference registration form, not a paper-submitting form.

Then that's just what they need to print attendance badges. They aren't going to not take your money because you have no proper affiliation. Put something plithy in there and you are sure to make some new friends at the conference.

> They aren't going to not take your money because you have no proper affiliation.

There is no fee for the conference I mentioned, nor for most conferences in my field. I feel sorry for anyone in a field where they have to pay just to visit another university and present a paper.

I will have no problem presenting a paper at that conference because, again, people vaguely know of my past affiliation. However, proposals for papers are screened by an editorial board just like journals before the person’s registration is accepted, and it may well be that someone without any affiliation would find themselves unwelcome.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do research on deep-learning based communication systems, would love to get in touch. My contact information's in profile.

I'm curious, what is a deep learning based communications system?

Deep learning based optical communications :D

https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.03222

It has the potential to significantly reduce complexity in various areas of the signal processing stack (in exchange for greater software complexity and black boxes)

We plan on using it to process signals for LED-based satellite FSO systems.

Would you like to get in touch to discuss more about it? We could use some advice on software for atmospheric simulations.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then that's just what they need to print attendance badges. They aren't going to not take your money because you have no proper affiliation. Put something plithy in there and you are sure to make some new friends at the conference.

> They aren't going to not take your money because you have no proper affiliation. There is no fee for the conference I mentioned, nor for most conferences in my field. I feel sorry for anyone in a field where they have to pay just to visit another university and present a paper. I will have no problem presenting a paper at that conference because, again, people vaguely know of my past affiliation. However, proposals…

I would be surprised if your area's leadership was so petty, but I guess it's possible. Double blind works well in this case, nothing else will actually.

Our conferences cost money because...well...ACM. Heck, even when we use university resources, the universities still charge us. You'd be surprised how much a biggish room goes for at ucla, for example.

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#79
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you still need at least an affiliation which is why the crackpot version (which doesn't require anything) exists? http://vixra.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ViXra

Off topic, but you weren't kidding about it being the "crackpot" version. A quick check of the recent papers in the "Set Theory and Logic" section gave me this gem: http://vixra.org/abs/1708.0156 . Which seems to argue that Cantor Diagonalization, a method of proof known for over a century and taught in most undergraduate abstract math courses, is completely wrong. There's also a 2-page proof that P != NP http://vixr…

The author in your last reference is pure gold. Here's another one of his gems, and I quote from the abstract:

"""

The author proposes several new concepts of physics such as it is not mass but the attracting force of mass which warps space, electricity can be generated from space at zero cost, making of graviton bombs are for real, it is possible to include gravitons and darkons in to the standard model of particle physics, unification of quantum physics with Einstein’s relativity can be performed on the foundations of a new spherical geometric applications, & new thoughts on big bang theory , particles and pre big bang.

"""

http://vixra.org/abs/1306.0017

Re: Ask HN: How and where can I publish my research on AI as a college dropout?

#80
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you still need at least an affiliation which is why the crackpot version (which doesn't require anything) exists? http://vixra.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ViXra

Off topic, but you weren't kidding about it being the "crackpot" version. A quick check of the recent papers in the "Set Theory and Logic" section gave me this gem: http://vixra.org/abs/1708.0156 . Which seems to argue that Cantor Diagonalization, a method of proof known for over a century and taught in most undergraduate abstract math courses, is completely wrong. There's also a 2-page proof that P != NP http://vixr…

> Which seems to argue that Cantor Diagonalization, a method of proof known for over a century and taught in most undergraduate abstract math courses, is completely wrong.

FWIW, this is a very common topic for mathematical cranks. It's somewhat understandable that in the 19th century this was kind of a controversial result, but it's really impressive that we still see crackpots swinging at the same target.

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