The Open Laboratory and Scientific Publication Cycle of itfree.science

The Guiding Principle (Living Science, Reproducible Rigor and Preprints)

• A Space from Experimentation to Early Publication: The core purpose of .science is to establish the foundation's open laboratory and preprint repository, focused on experimentation and documenting knowledge in development. Declared authorship, versions, methods and related artifacts help make each research journey understandable and verifiable. The platform offers preliminary technical analyses and room for human scrutiny, without replacing journals' editorial criteria or granting scientific validity to results.

From the outset, participants can indicate their intended destination for the project, such as public discussion, private guidance or future submission to a journal. This intention guides visibility choices and precautions before sharing information, without imposing a single sequence or promising editorial acceptance.

How the Community Connects and Produces (Scientific Focus Areas)

.science is organized to welcome leading-edge research, offering the resources and protocols needed for scientific work to flow throughout its lifecycle without unnecessary bureaucratic friction:

1. For the Preprint Repository and Early Publication:
   • How It Works: Those who choose to start a project publicly can develop it and share its stages without purchasing a private environment, using additional services when useful. When an author decides to release a manuscript, it is identified as a preprint, accompanied by the versions, references and supporting materials that can be shared. The community can follow, comment on and review the work, with the status of each contribution clearly indicated.
   • Empowerment: The public path gives ideas visibility and makes them easier to examine, without making participation conditional on an institution or prior acceptance by a journal. Before the first significant disclosure, rights holders should consider the rights involved and the policies of the journals to which they intend to submit the work.
2. For Private Development (Privacy Before Disclosure):
   • How It Works: The project can be developed in external tools or in a restricted-access environment offered by providers. Within that environment, conversations and materials are limited to invited participants and authorized roles; files kept outside it follow the access controls of the tools used. The manuscript is not presented as a preprint while it remains private; any later release depends on the rights holders' decision, the necessary permissions and relevant editorial policies.
   • Empowerment: Private development provides space to mature work without forcing authors to disclose results before their chosen time. Using this feature grants neither editorial priority nor a higher scientific standing than the public path.
3. For Deterministic Preliminary Analysis and Methodological Adapters:
   • How It Works: Adapters perform technical checks according to public, versioned criteria suited to the artifact type. Depending on the project, these may cover document structure and traceability or technical software evidence, such as running tests when appropriate.
   • Empowerment: The community knows these criteria and can propose revisions. Checks organize evidence for human assessment, but neither certify the validity of hypotheses nor replace peer review.
4. For Research Continuity (Dialogue with External Science):
   • How It Works: A preprint can link to reviews, new versions and external publications, identifying the origin and status of each reference. Community activity and interest help organize discussion, but are neither equivalent to editorial review nor proof of a hypothesis's validity.
   • Empowerment: Academic and independent research find a public starting point for dialogue with journals and other assessment venues, without .science claiming the endorsement granted by those bodies.

The Sustainability of Science (Knowledge as a Common Good)

The greatest asset of itfree.science lies in the integrity and lasting continuity of the open scientific method:

• Science Without Barriers: The laboratory expands access to preprints and results published as open, respecting licenses, authors' rights and data protection. Supporting data and code can be shared according to each project's terms and the necessary permissions.
• Closing the Knowledge Cycle: In .science, experimentation tests the theories studied in the classroom against real problems, strengthening the foundation's commitment to rigorous, ethical, decentralized science built by many hands.

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