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

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11–20 of 88 posts

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

#12

If you feel you have made an actual contribution/extension of existing work I would try contacting the authors to see if they will review your work and potentially co-author something with you?

If he did the work, why should he need a co-author?

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

#13
I really like this question. I’ll make a few brief points:

- Most computer science research can be categorized into one of three forms: preprints published on arxiv or similar websites, papers published in conference proceedings, and source code. In artificial intelligence research, it’s typical for research, if there’s demand, to be promoted from a preprint, to a paper published in a conference proceeding, to publicized source code. Most research doesn’t make it past the first step and that’s usually okay.

- Many computer science labs are open to collaboration from outside contributors. It’s especially true for academic labs where day-to-day research is usually led by graduate students and post-doctoral students. In either situation, regardless of domicile, that person is underpaid and overworked and will eagerly accept help. However, a lot of computer science research comes from for-profit institutions (e.g. Facebook AI Research, Google Brain, and Microsoft Research are three well-know institutions in artificial intelligence research). In my experience, labs inside for-profit institutions will readily work for academic and non-profit institutions for the prestige but are less likely to work with independent contributors since there’s less incentive.

- When you start looking for contributors, I’d look for academic or non-profit labs that match your specific interest, I’d look for the people in that lab that are actually publishing (i.e. check arxiv), and I’d directly offer your skillset from the start (e.g. “I’m a programmer that’s worked on such-and-such and I’m looking to contribute”).

Finally, if you working on computer vision, please reach out! My lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard are always looking for free help and more than willing to help people bootstrap their publication record.

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

#14

If you feel you have made an actual contribution/extension of existing work I would try contacting the authors to see if they will review your work and potentially co-author something with you?

If he did the work, why should he need a co-author?

If it’s your first paper, co-authors can be extremely useful to help guide the author through the publication process. It’s also helpful for marketing purposes. Hell, this is basically the graduate school route.

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

#15
post #7

anyone can upload to arxiv.org. I, and many others, regard single-author publications with a higher degree of suspicion, so you should still reach out to other researchers in the area and foster collaborations first.

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

https://arxiv.org/help/registerhelp You only need-need an email address, I think.

I've seen papers where the 'institution' of the author is their home address both on arxiv submissions and in traditional journals. I didn't trust them very much, but I have seen them.

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

#16
post #3

Github with code samples is more useful thesedays.

It really depends on the type of research. Writing, in artificial intelligence, can be especially useful when it’s still unclear whether your research is reasonably implementable. Machine learning, for example, was mostly theoretical until the engineering issues were resolved.

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

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he did the work, why should he need a co-author?

If it’s your first paper, co-authors can be extremely useful to help guide the author through the publication process. It’s also helpful for marketing purposes. Hell, this is basically the graduate school route.

It seems like having all those arbitrary requirements is good for nothing but gatekeeping higher education. Why not have those requirements publicly known and not unnecessarily complicated so that everyone can submit info?

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

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s your first paper, co-authors can be extremely useful to help guide the author through the publication process. It’s also helpful for marketing purposes. Hell, this is basically the graduate school route.

It seems like having all those arbitrary requirements is good for nothing but gatekeeping higher education. Why not have those requirements publicly known and not unnecessarily complicated so that everyone can submit info?

Normative publication behavior varies by field, but is generally well known and openly discussed, critiqued, modified, etc. inside each field. It's not exactly kept quiet.

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

#19

anyone can upload to arxiv.org. I, and many others, regard single-author publications with a higher degree of suspicion, so you should still reach out to other researchers in the area and foster collaborations first.

>anyone can upload to arxiv.org

I thought you needed an endorsement from someone already in the system, or were affiliated with a university?

https://arxiv.org/help/endorsement

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

#20
There is no requirement to be affiliated with an institution to publish, or even hold any kind of degree. If the journal or conference is double blind, they will never even know about your credentials.

Of course, credentials do imply some skills and content quality that cause publications to be accepted, but the reverse isn't true.

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