Heyo, sorry I just subscribed so not sure if you already addressed this, but could you say more about how this effort fits into the wider ecosystem of outside-academia science? What might your ideal projects look like?
It seems some of your focus is on meta science and theorizing?
There are already numerous hobbyist and interest groups publishing research, from
Native plant societies to coral-growing aquarists. There are self-experimenters and the quantified self community. There are various community or citizen science projects. There is science fair science, often overlooked and weirdly relegated to children. Related, there are creative side projects and Ignoble science. Then there is Twitter theorizing, and of course a wide array of blogs.
It's a good question. Really, the answer is D. all of the above - we are open to legitimate science from any and all of the communities/sources you describe (maybe not science fairs though tbh lol). In practice, we draw most heavily on the blogosphere - amateurs, undergraduates, and graduate students writing informal articles and working through ideas.
While we are open to virtually any kind of paper (experimental, data analysis, literature review, etc.) and have published a wide variety, it is really a journal about ideas, particularly early-stage ones ("seeds of science"). The strength of our community-based review process lies more in helping people sharpen and extend their ideas vs. dissecting experimental design and data analyses.
In the max dash to collect and retain eyeballs, it seems everything is being likened to war, and no one wants to lose. Dead ends have become too risky, or too expensive to explore. Results, profit, and the win have captured the popular imagination. Not just science. We have all become hostages to profit.
This is incredible. As a plant biologist, I applaud the puns. But more importantly, I think this is exactly the kind of project we need right now. I”m glad to help in any way and will be registering with you ASAP.
While I think that SoS has a clearly special niche: a community of mainly non university scholars, and a Journal focused on wide perspectives and meta problems in Science has room for adding value.
I would suggest that a Forum (similar to EA or Progress Forum, but only for members) and some additional clarity on the kind of articles expected for the Journal would be useful.
We agree about the need for a forum, but our sense is that it wouldn't get enough traction at this point in time - definitely something we will look at down the road however.
Curious where you think additional clarity would be useful and we are interested in hearing your perspective, will email reach out through email.
No, unfortunately not - from what I understand it's not the easiest process to become a registered charity in US and we don't really have the manpower/expertise to make it happen right now. You'll just have to make a donation without the side benefit ;)
You could look into fiscal hosting in the US. At the Unjournal we are using Open Collective Foundation and I think it works fairly well (although there are some points to improve, as always). Note they charge about a 5% fee.
Heyo, sorry I just subscribed so not sure if you already addressed this, but could you say more about how this effort fits into the wider ecosystem of outside-academia science? What might your ideal projects look like?
It seems some of your focus is on meta science and theorizing?
There are already numerous hobbyist and interest groups publishing research, from
Native plant societies to coral-growing aquarists. There are self-experimenters and the quantified self community. There are various community or citizen science projects. There is science fair science, often overlooked and weirdly relegated to children. Related, there are creative side projects and Ignoble science. Then there is Twitter theorizing, and of course a wide array of blogs.
It's a good question. Really, the answer is D. all of the above - we are open to legitimate science from any and all of the communities/sources you describe (maybe not science fairs though tbh lol). In practice, we draw most heavily on the blogosphere - amateurs, undergraduates, and graduate students writing informal articles and working through ideas.
While we are open to virtually any kind of paper (experimental, data analysis, literature review, etc.) and have published a wide variety, it is really a journal about ideas, particularly early-stage ones ("seeds of science"). The strength of our community-based review process lies more in helping people sharpen and extend their ideas vs. dissecting experimental design and data analyses.
https://www.theseedsofscience.org/howtopublish <- more information on our format and criteria in case you didn't see it.
Thanks! BYW I always think of the Mpemba effect when I think of science fairs. No reason more science like this couldn’t be invented by school kids.
https://physicsworld.com/a/when-cold-warms-faster-than-hot/
In the max dash to collect and retain eyeballs, it seems everything is being likened to war, and no one wants to lose. Dead ends have become too risky, or too expensive to explore. Results, profit, and the win have captured the popular imagination. Not just science. We have all become hostages to profit.
This is incredible. As a plant biologist, I applaud the puns. But more importantly, I think this is exactly the kind of project we need right now. I”m glad to help in any way and will be registering with you ASAP.
hehe thank you! Looking forward to hearing from you :)
Another affine project is the Unjournal:
https://globalimpact.gitbook.io/the-unjournal-project-and-communication-space/
While I think that SoS has a clearly special niche: a community of mainly non university scholars, and a Journal focused on wide perspectives and meta problems in Science has room for adding value.
I would suggest that a Forum (similar to EA or Progress Forum, but only for members) and some additional clarity on the kind of articles expected for the Journal would be useful.
We agree about the need for a forum, but our sense is that it wouldn't get enough traction at this point in time - definitely something we will look at down the road however.
Curious where you think additional clarity would be useful and we are interested in hearing your perspective, will email reach out through email.
Are you guys aware of Researchers One?
https://researchers.one/
It looks similar to what you are doing.
No we were not - very interesting, thanks for sharing. Similar to what we are doing in some ways, in others not as much
No, unfortunately not - from what I understand it's not the easiest process to become a registered charity in US and we don't really have the manpower/expertise to make it happen right now. You'll just have to make a donation without the side benefit ;)
You could look into fiscal hosting in the US. At the Unjournal we are using Open Collective Foundation and I think it works fairly well (although there are some points to improve, as always). Note they charge about a 5% fee.
Hmmm very interesting, thanks for sharing (Unjournal looks really cool too).
Actually, I just recalled this list of fiscal sponsors which may be helpful: https://pineappleoperations.org/fiscal-sponsors
(the link to the guide by Anti Entropy is good as well)
The Unjournal also got it's initial after applying for an ACX Grant as well! (the grant was made by LTFF)
https://globalimpact.gitbook.io/the-unjournal-project-and-communication-space/grants-and-proposals/acx-ltff-grant-proposal-as-submitted-successfull
Thank you so much! This is very helpful :)