How to avoid stealing of my idea before publishing it?

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The discussion revolves around an individual developing a new gravity theory aimed at extending General Relativity. Despite lacking formal academic credentials, the individual has made progress, achieving predictions that can be validated through astronomical evidence and lab experiments. As they approach the stage of seeking collaboration with published physicists for data and potential co-authorship, concerns arise about the risk of their ideas being appropriated. The individual contemplates publishing a preliminary version of their theory on vixra for timestamping purposes before reaching out to physicists. The conversation emphasizes the importance of sharing ideas only with trustworthy individuals to mitigate the risk of intellectual theft, while also acknowledging the professional community's general adherence to proper attribution.
SpiderET
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After some years of work I have somewhere in first stage of creating a new gravity theory which would extend General relativity theory. There are many similar attempts from serious physicists and even many more from crackpots. I have no academic association and have only MSc in Computer sciences, doing physics as my hobby. Some years ago, I have estimated my chances to actually invent some new revolutionary theory as 1 to 1000 000, but after gradual improvements I am now in stage where my theory can make predictions which are new and can be confirmed by astronomical evidence, calculations based on GPS satellites data and now I am working on lab experiment, which could be easily repeated by any other lab. So after first aproximate calculations which confirmed predictions I am quite confident that I am on right track.

But I have some serious issues. I am nearing to a stage, where I need to contact some physicists which have published related papers to obtain exact data for calculating theory predictions and also to gain potential endorsers on arxiv or potential co-authors. To motivate them to cooperate I would have to explain predictions and details of my theory and then maybe some of them would cooperate.

But if I send my work for example to ten selected physicists, it can easily end in nine of them rejecting it and the tenth, which would really get to understand it, could improve it within one month and publish it under his name.

How to avoid this scenario? Should I publish this theory in basic version without experimental confirmations first in vixra to have it time stamped with my name and then proceed trying to get some cooperation with physicists to polish it to be published in arxiv?
 
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@SpiderET : I applaud your motivation and desire. And yet, PF's mission is to help people understand current, mainstream physics and science. The forum rules that you agreed to when you registered mention that personal theories and speculation are not allowed.

With that said, I encourage you to consider posting questions that might help you better understand any current ideas that you're having a problem with as you consider your alternate 'theory'. Also, you should read this recent thread with input/feedback to a similar post, "How to Publish a New Theorem": https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-to-publish-a-new-theorem.770922/
 
TumblingDice said:
@SpiderET : I applaud your motivation and desire. And yet, PF's mission is to help people understand current, mainstream physics and science. The forum rules that you agreed to when you registered mention that personal theories and speculation are not allowed.

With that said, I encourage you to consider posting questions that might help you better understand any current ideas that you're having a problem with as you consider your alternate 'theory'. Also, you should read this recent thread with input/feedback to a similar post, "How to Publish a New Theorem": https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-to-publish-a-new-theorem.770922/[/QUOTE

I undestand, that I can not post a new theory on PF. And I did not. There is only short description of the circumstances before I get to the main topic.
And main focus on my post is the same as the name of the thread: How to start cooperation without risking to get your idea stealed. I really hope this topic can be discussed.

I have been reading the "How to Publish New Theorem" and see nothing which is directly related to the main topic of my thread.
 
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Generally I think this is a non issue for professional scientists. The professional physics community is good at proper attribution.

However, in general the only surefire way to prevent an idea from being stolen is to only share it with trustworthy people.
 
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