Re: [DIYbio] Re: Getting your paper published if you are independent researcher

Well, I can give my $0.02 if it can help.

I've published a good deal of papers on preprint and peer reviewed journals. I just got my first genetics paper recently accepted and published in Theoretical Population Biology (here), though it was mostly theory. I am working on an applied paper with the population genetics of vinegar bacteria but getting samples from around the world has halted due to COVID-19 so that is on ice indefinitely. Most of my previous work was physics and related topics though to be honest.

Anyway there are two main issues with affiliation: preprint servers and peer reviewed journals. For preprint servers, for a long time arXiv, mostly for physics, astronomy, CS, and math, was the only game in town. I first registered almost 20 years ago as an undergrad and was lucky I did so since soon after they put up a requirement for a .edu or commercial/organization domain email for registration. That excluded people using gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc. I am not sure if this rule still held after all this time (I think it was relaxed) but this was part of their 'quality' control to keep junk or crank papers from filling up the server. Granted, a lot of good people are probably excluded too but that was their policy. Now I think their policy is to ask you questions about affiliations etc. when you register though I have no idea if they reject people (I am sure they do). So the first hurdle is if you want to upload a non-reviewed preprint, to make sure you can register. Luckily, the big biological sciences preprint archive BiorXiv seems much more reasonable in allowing registrations and uploads in my experience though all uploads are reviewed and lightly moderated.

Second with the preprint servers is moderation and you can't post on any without the paper being reviewed by a moderator for the section you are uploading to. If your paper is 'edgy' it could be considered junk and rejected so make it as professional as possible. It can help to use LaTeX instead of Microsoft Word, etc. though I think Word is more accepted in biological science circles.

So this was a long way of saying no affiliation could be a hurdle for preprints though not an insurmountable one. I am registered with BiorXiv under my company (Supreme Vinegar LLC) and no one ever asked questions.

The second point is peer review journals. When I was younger, an organization called the Society for Amateur Scientists (and later the Citizen Scientists League) existed for serious science amateurs. They gave you an email as a member and you could publish using them as your affiliation. That worked well until they dissolved. When I wasn't in school and grad school for a time I actually had created and used my own organization under which I published papers (in retrospect I am not sure if I would have done the same) with a disclaimer on my website about what the organization was (just me). I never had a problem submitting and publishing and I wasn't misrepresenting anything. 

However, you can use just yourself and a PO box, or even your home address, as the institution. I probably would just put 'independent researcher'. If you are a member of a DIY Bio club, ask the club board if you can use them as the affiliation. Having had about 20 papers published in journals with only a handful with university affiliations I have never had an editor come back and ask "who the f* are you?" and reject outright based on affiliation. Granted, if peer review allows the reviewers to see your name and affiliation maybe there could be bias but I have never seen someone outright state such.

In summary, the affiliation should not be a huge issue. Just make sure you are not using employer resources so that they could claim some sort of IP or copyright on your work if it becomes important. What is much, much more important in getting published in journals is knowing the correct terminology, being able to communicate clearly, and mastering the feel and jargon of a professional paper. Early on I had professional results often rejected for presentation in what was a "non-professional" manner. Reading a lot of papers gives you a feel for scientific prose and helps you write better papers.

Also, reviewers judge you directly by your references. A familiarity with related research and citing it makes you look like you know the field and the state of the art. Citing actual journal source papers or high level monographs, not ordinary introductory textbooks or even worse websites (I'm sure you know this but DO NOT CITE WIKIPEDIA; I have seen this happen), goes a long way in making people comfortable with your work. If you barely cite anything at all then it screams 'novice', especially if a peer reviewer in the field gets it.

Also, have a few journals in mind to submit to since editors or reviewers may reject you at your first choice. Do not take rejection personally since rejection can be random and quirky. I know myself and professionals who have been rejected by editors before peer review in one journal and accepted in another journal with a similar impact factor. Many peer reviewers (in fact most) provide honest and insightful commentary you should take to heart in improving the paper. A few are dicks which you have to unfortunately deal with and reply to in a professional manner (though this may not help) but don't be so wedded to your ideas that you can't take constructive criticism. Also, peer review is long. Expect 3 months for the first review in my experience and COVID-19 is slowing everyone down to the point journals are issuing disclaimers on review time.

Let me know if you want to know any other things from my experience. Good luck!

Reggie

On Monday, May 4, 2020 at 4:39:45 AM UTC-4, Dorif wrote:

What journals will publish papers from independent researchers and with what conditions?

If author doesn't wants to announce its affiliation, because it has nothing in common with its research (example: somebody is IT specialist and DIY-biologist - IT company has nothing in common with biology, or if somebody like me works in human molecular genetics lab, but do some research involving extremophilic or extremotolerating microorganisms like Deinococcus sp. at home - extremophiles have nothing in common with Institute of Mother and Child...), if author affiliation may not be disclosed because of some conditions (governmental secrets, NDA's and so on) or if author has no affiliation at all...

Is there a way to get your results published in this case?

Thanks for advice!

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