Where Can I Find Reliable Paper Publishing Advice?

[exmarine]

Summary:: I would like to write a paper about a subject germane to this forum,...

I would like to write a paper about a subject germane to this forum, i.e., general relativity, frame dragging, dark matter, etc. I have no connection to any academics, so I don’t know and can’t ask anyone what journals might be appropriate. Also I have no “credentials” and will automatically be assumed a crack-pot. (A perfectly understandable policy considering some of the stuff I have seen on the web!) Can anyone suggest how to go about this, what journals I might try – specifically ones with competent and rigorous reviews before publishing?

Thanks.

 

[berkeman]

Summary:: I would like to write a paper about a subject germane to this forum,...

I would like to write a paper about a subject germane to this forum, i.e., general relativity, frame dragging, dark matter, etc. I have no connection to any academics, so I don’t know and can’t ask anyone what journals might be appropriate. Also I have no “credentials” and will automatically be assumed a crack-pot. (A perfectly understandable policy considering some of the stuff I have seen on the web!) Can anyone suggest how to go about this, what journals I might try – specifically ones with competent and rigorous reviews before publishing?

Thanks.

There are several Insights articles that will give you some information, like this one:

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/guide-publishing-peer-reviewed-journals/

Watch out for predatory journals -- they will take your money and provide very little value. Also, you should be reading the journals that publish similar papers to what you want to publish. And you should be reading the papers and the references in those papers to understand the field better. If you are not doing that reading, it's probably a bad idea to pursue trying to send anything in for review, IMO.

Do you have a local technical library that carries such journals?

 

[fresh_42]

Summary:: I would like to write a paper about a subject germane to this forum,...

I would like to write a paper about a subject germane to this forum, i.e., general relativity, frame dragging, dark matter, etc. I have no connection to any academics, so I don’t know and can’t ask anyone what journals might be appropriate. Also I have no “credentials” and will automatically be assumed a crack-pot. (A perfectly understandable policy considering some of the stuff I have seen on the web!) Can anyone suggest how to go about this, what journals I might try – specifically ones with competent and rigorous reviews before publishing?

Thanks.

To be honest: there is not much hope. We have a couple of articles about the problem in our insight blog section, so maybe you can find some advice there.
https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/?s=publish

I have a similar problem. I'm currently writing a paper - well, no paper, mainly just the formulas, the texts must still be included - which could serve well as either a master thesis or a paper. It is about a part of mathematics which is very likely not found anywhere else. I even know a professor in Vienna who might be interested in the ideas or just take it as a suggestion for one of his students to elaborate it, or simply check for errors. His father was a professor of mine. It is itself not suited as an insight article on PF as it is presumably not of general interest. However, it's long ago that I finished my study at university, so chances that it will ever be read are close to zero. Nevertheless it makes fun to think about and write down the results. At the end I might publish it on (worthless) researchgate. It's a bit of a pity as it is really new stuff. But, so what. At least it makes fun and smaller parts serve as questions in our math challenge threads.

 

[Dale]

I don’t know and can’t ask anyone what journals might be appropriate

That shouldn’t be a problem. Since you don’t have formal training in this area then you will need to “double down” (or even triple) in your reading of the relevant scientific literature. Keep detailed notes of what you read and key insights from each paper (not necessarily the point of the paper but what you individually learned from it).

As you do that you will find that most of the papers come from a few journals. Those are your target journals. You can either choose the one that you used the most or you can choose the most prestigious (highest impact factor)

 

[martinbn]

Why not email your paper to some of the people working on these topics. They'll give youfeed back and advice where to send it.

 

[exmarine]

Thanks for the responses! But no I do not have access to a technical library. The nearest one (UVA) is about 100 miles away, I am retired and have to take care of an ailing spouse. So I do not even know what journals are out there, much less have any familiarity with their contents, styles, etc. The only reading materials I have are the many textbooks I have bought from Amazon and the papers I can find on arXiv.

I thought about sending it to Zee since a section in his book is what sparked the idea. But I hate to pester those busy guys. Although I did send an email to Milgrom (‼) some time ago on a different subject and got a very gracious response. A problem with sending this paper to him is that it argues counter to his MOND theory. Or maybe that would be a good reason to send it to him. I suspect he might vigorously oppose it if he has the time to read it.

So no specific journal recommendations based on the subjects of general relativity, astrophysics, etc.?

PS. Do the reputable journals charge the authors fees for publishing?

 

[berkeman]

Does your work contain testable hypotheses? If so, how expensive would it be (in dollars or energy from the grid) to conduct those experiments?

 

[Dale]

The only reading materials I have are the many textbooks I have bought from Amazon and the papers I can find on arXiv

That probably won’t be enough background research to produce anything publishable. You can’t think outside the box if you don’t even know what is in the box. But when you are reading arxiv be sure to at least pay attention to which journal the article is actually published in. That might be enough to get you a few journals (instead of a whole library) to get access to and consider.