Sharing ideas

[Chriss]

Hy.

Is it ok to share ideas with people before publishing them ? Or there is the risk someone to take it from you ?

[Klaynos]

That very much depends on the idea, who you're sharing with and the field. It also depends on your reasons for sharing.

[Phi for All]

There is always a risk of someone taking your intellectual property, proportionate to how valuable it is.

 

You could write up as much of your idea as possible on paper, and mail it to yourself, so you get a postmarked date on a sealed document. File it away unopened, and it can at least serve as supportive evidence that you had this idea on a certain date.

 

If someone you told after this date tried to steal the idea, you'd then only have to prove you told them. If you want to make that easy in court, get them to sign a non-disclosure agreement first.

 

If you're wanting to share speculative physics ideas with us here, we have the Speculations section, with special rules. Sharing physics ideas requires evidence to back up any assertions you make, otherwise it's just guesswork, and that's not what we do here. Lots of other sites for guesswork in physics.

[swansont]

That said, stealing ideas in science isn't that common. Most scientists are happy to give credit where it's due, and partly that's because you have to share ideas to get feedback and fix what's wrong.

[Phi for All]

That said, stealing ideas in science isn't that common. Most scientists are happy to give credit where it's due, and partly that's because you have to share ideas to get feedback and fix what's wrong.

 

Even in the movies, it's rarely the scientist who ignores the cumulative efforts of all the people who turn a great idea into reality. It's almost always the greedy businessperson who owns the patent without understanding any of the science.

 

The members we have who are science professionals all seem to know science doesn't work in a vacuum. Sharing seems to come naturally to you all.

[swansont]

 

Even in the movies, it's rarely the scientist who ignores the cumulative efforts of all the people who turn a great idea into reality. It's almost always the greedy businessperson who owns the patent without understanding any of the science.

 

The members we have who are science professionals all seem to know science doesn't work in a vacuum. Sharing seems to come naturally to you all.

 

Movies/TV also tend to overstate the lone genius vs collaboration part. Probably not the best guide; you never really know what they got right and what they made up from stereotypes.

[Chriss]

I know that Roetgen worked alone on his discovery of X-rays, and share it with colleagues after he publish it.

Is he was afraid the credit not being thaken away from him ?

[StringJunky]

That said, stealing ideas in science isn't that common. Most scientists are happy to give credit where it's due, and partly that's because you have to share ideas to get feedback and fix what's wrong.

Yes. "If I Have seen further...." pretty much sums up the overall attitude I think.

[ajb]

Is it ok to share ideas with people before publishing them ? Or there is the risk someone to take it from you ?

People can steal ideas from you, including PhD supervisors and alike. However, it is generally rare and people usually have enough to work on themselves anyway.

 

You can minimise the risk by sharing with more than one person at a time. I use to always send a copy of any preprints to my brother via email so that we have independent records of when a draft was prepared.

 

I would also add that it is essential that you discuss things with other people working in the field. You need this feedback and their perspective to ensure that you are doing something interesting to the community.

[Strange]

You could write up as much of your idea as possible on paper, and mail it to yourself, so you get a postmarked date on a sealed document. File it away unopened, and it can at least serve as supportive evidence that you had this idea on a certain date.

 

As the page you link to notes, this method is not even worth the price of the stamp. If you were really bothered (and you live in one of the countries that doesn't have a copyright registry - which is statistically likely) then you could get a copy notarized.

That said, stealing ideas in science isn't that common. Most scientists are happy to give credit where it's due, and partly that's because you have to share ideas to get feedback and fix what's wrong.

 

It might also be that there isn't much (commercial) value in stealing a scientific idea. On the other hand, technological ideas are often stolen (or attempted to be stolen) for commercial gain.

[swansont]

It might also be that there isn't much (commercial) value in stealing a scientific idea. On the other hand, technological ideas are often stolen (or attempted to be stolen) for commercial gain.

Good point. Such ideas have already been filtered through the vetting process of seeing if there is a commercial application.