How to avoid stealing of my idea before publishing it?

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    Idea Publishing
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concerns of an individual developing a new gravity theory and the potential risks of idea theft when seeking collaboration with established physicists. The scope includes theoretical development, publication strategies, and the dynamics of academic collaboration.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • The original poster (OP) expresses concerns about sharing their new gravity theory with physicists due to the fear of idea theft, especially if the theory is not yet published.
  • The OP considers publishing a basic version of their theory on vixra to timestamp their work before seeking collaboration.
  • Some participants suggest that the professional physics community generally ensures proper attribution and that sharing ideas with trustworthy individuals is crucial to prevent theft.
  • Another participant emphasizes that the forum's mission is to focus on mainstream physics and discourages personal theories and speculation.
  • The OP clarifies that their main concern is about initiating cooperation without risking their ideas being appropriated.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

There is no consensus on the best approach to protect ideas while seeking collaboration. Participants express differing views on the risks of idea theft and the appropriateness of sharing personal theories.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights the tension between the desire for collaboration and the fear of intellectual theft, with varying opinions on the reliability of the academic community in safeguarding ideas.

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 approximate 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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