If you have ever thought about putting an unpublished book manuscript in your Profile on Research Gate, what were some of the factors pro and con that went into your decision?
And if you have actually put an unpublished serious scientific article or research monograph on Research Gate, did you have "positive results"? For example, was it helpful in eventually publishing it in a periodical with an ISSN or a book with an ISBN?
Dear Nancy Ann Watanabe,
Numerous preprints (e-prints) in eight scientific fields (Physics, Matthematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance, Statistics, Electrical Engineering and System Science and Economics) are are online accessible at prestigious site of arXiv (noticed by Vladimir Kadets, January 6 2020) (https://arxiv.org/) from Cornell University (1991-). In particular, In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are self-archieved on the arXiv repository. By October 2016 the submission rate of submitted preprints at arXiv had grown to more than 10,000 per month (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArXiv). By my knowledge, all arXiv’s preprints of every academician are also available at his RG profile.
Dear Nancy Ann Watanabe ,
What do you mean by "positive results"? The goal of publishing something in Research Gate is to give free access to this work to everybody potentially interested in it. This result is achieved automatically at the moment of publication.
Answering your other question: yes, I have published in Research Gate the original Russian version of one of my books, that is published officially only in English:
Data Kadets-Series in Banach spaces. Unpublished Russian version ...
Unfortunately, the Russian version exists only as a carbon copy typed using an old typing machine, so the quality of the scan is not too good, but it is readable with some effort :)
Dear Subir Bandyopadhyay ,
When one deals with his/her own unpublished text the difference between publishing and sharing is not too big. There is only a legal issue that "publishing" means some copyright protection, but for a non-profit research if some unpublished text is shared by the author at Research Gate, I don't think that this legal issue may harm anybody.
Of course, if your goal is to use the monograph to increase you citation index or build better scientific reputation, then for sure you should publish it in a respected publishing house. I did not have this goal, because the publication of original text in Russian does not add much for citations if the English translation is already published. Even more, an accessible Russian version is a kind of advertisement for the English one.
Vladimir Kadets ,
Thank you very much for replying to my question with your suggestion for improving it and for including a link to the unpublished Russian version of the published English version of one of your books. In responding to your helpful answers, first, I have changed the wording in my question to be more concrete and precise. I purposely used a vague phrase, "positive results," to encourage a wide range of possibilities; however, my own concern is whether posting a pre-publication file on ResearchGate might help or hinder publication in other more conventional venues, such as a journal (ISSN) or a book (ISBN).
Your use of the word "free" is very relevant because most publishers of journals and books, whether university presses or scientific publishing houses, in order to stay in business, have to have a source of revenue to meet operating costs and to meet expenses incurred during the publishing process, including production of galleys, press run expenses, and, in the case of hard copy journals and books, paying bills for paper, printing, and manufacturing (binding, inventory storage), and distribution. All of these listed publication expenses, high as they may be, are eclipsed considerably by the capital needed to maintain office space in a building (e.g., rent, electricity, and maintenance costs), and the regular income needed to pay editorial and office staff, including salaries, wages, and fringe benefits. Most academic and scholarly publishing involves appointing an editorial board and maintaining a list of specialist readers, all of whom typically participate in the selecting of publishable manuscripts voluntarily, without pay, as an integral part of their professional duties to the research, writing, and publishing community.
Very best regards, and thanks again for contributing to this thread!
Subir Bandyopadhyay ,
Thanks for your reply to my question. I appreciate your differentiating "sharing" and "publishing." Best wishes for the new 2020 year. Regards.
I think it is better that it be published first with an ISBN/ISSN. This is what I did with one of my text books. After it ran its useful course, I then uploaded the PDF into RG for all to see and download freely once the contract with the original publisher was cancelled. See Book Basics of Photonics and Optics
Dear Nancy Ann Watanabe ,
In mathematics and physics there is a better respected platform for sharing preliminary versions of papers that you typically intend to submit to a regular journal shortly after that. This is arXive: https://arxiv.org/
It is generally accepted that you may submit to journals the results already posed as arXive preprints, moreover many scientist make citations of arXive publications, so when you publish the corresponding paper with the same title in the regular way (whish happens, say 1 year later) the paper (or monograph) may already have some citations. And yes, these pre-publications are sometimes helpful for further publishing, because potential referees read such kind of pre-publications.
@Vladimir Kadets
I stated from a different angle. I work on plant taxonomy. If a describe a new plant species it has to be published. Sharing without publishing has no value because until and unless it is validly published the credit of publishing the new species will not go to me. If it is uploaded on RG without publishing anyone can publish it in his/her name. My view might not be true in all the cases, for example as in your case
Dear Nancy Ann Watanabe,
Numerous preprints (e-prints) in eight scientific fields (Physics, Matthematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance, Statistics, Electrical Engineering and System Science and Economics) are are online accessible at prestigious site of arXiv (noticed by Vladimir Kadets, January 6 2020) (https://arxiv.org/) from Cornell University (1991-). In particular, In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are self-archieved on the arXiv repository. By October 2016 the submission rate of submitted preprints at arXiv had grown to more than 10,000 per month (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArXiv). By my knowledge, all arXiv’s preprints of every academician are also available at his RG profile.
arXiv.org made it difficult to publish in cross-disciplinary fields. It requires endorsement. I prefer RG better where you can instantly make your work available. It gives more detailed statistics about your work being read.
Every citation of a preprint/paper from arXiv is counted at Google Scholar profile(s) of author(s). However, it seems that this is not the case for preprints available only at RG.
In recent weeks, Google Scholar has notified me about 3 new listings, one of which was an article by a team of scientists, one of whom has a name similar to mine, and also two preprint/papers of my sole authorship, which I recently posted on my profile at RG. However, I do not know if other RG members have a similar experience. Google Scholar has not listed all of my preprint/papers of mine during the past year or so of my RG membership.
Shahid Nawaz ,
I appreciate your detailed contribution to this thread in which you assert that RG is more open to cross-disciplinary fields, is more efficient, and provides good feedback about readership. Thank you very much!
Romeo Meštrović ,
Thank you so much for your interesting contribution to this thread!
Romeo Meštrović ,
I very much appreciate your recommendation of this question. Best regards.
I don't have experience per se in uploading an unpublished manuscript of a book into RG. I have two books and I have placed a PDF of one in RG. Book Basics of Photonics and Optics
I have had multiple reads of this and thus it appears as though it is reaching the audience.
@Srini Vasan,
Thank you very much for your contribution to this thread!
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