coulomb-research/seed/PublicationInterface.md

Publication Interface

Purpose

The Publication Interface connects Coulomb-native research to conventional scientific literature and institutions.

The governing rule is:

The living research graph is canonical. Papers are import/export containers.

This allows Coulomb to interoperate with traditional science without making the paper the primary internal unit of knowledge.

1. Inbound: Paper Digestion

An external paper should be treated as an externally authored artifact that can be decomposed into reusable research objects.

1.1 Ingestion pipeline

external paper
   ↓
identity resolution
   ↓
metadata extraction
   ↓
content parsing
   ↓
claim / method / evidence extraction
   ↓
relation mapping
   ↓
provenance capture
   ↓
Coulomb research graph

1.2 Candidate input formats

• DOI
• arXiv identifier
• URL
• PDF
• BibTeX
• RIS
• JATS XML
• Crossref metadata
• DataCite metadata
• repository metadata

1.3 PaperDigest model

A useful normalized representation:

source:
  doi:
  arxiv:
  url:

identity:
  title:
  authors:
  institutions:
  publication_date:
  venue:

digest:
  research_question:
  propositions:
  methods:
  evidence:
  limitations:
  conclusions:

relations:
  depends_on:
  supports:
  challenges:
  extends:
  uses_dataset:
  uses_software:

provenance:
  digest_actor:
  digest_model:
  created_at:
  confidence:
  human_verified:

1.4 Epistemic separation

The system must preserve the distinction between:

• what the paper states,
• what an extraction agent inferred,
• what external evidence supports,
• what Coulomb participants currently accept.

No ingestion pipeline should silently convert extraction into endorsement.

2. Recursive Literature Digestion

Once ingested, a paper may trigger additional work:

references
   ↓
missing foundational work

cited-by graph
   ↓
later extensions and criticism

extracted propositions
   ↓
matching Coulomb propositions

methods
   ↓
replication candidates

limitations
   ↓
open problems

Traditional scientific publishing becomes an external sensor network for Coulomb.

3. Outbound: Paper Projection

A paper is generated from a selected region of the research graph.

research graph
   ↓
scope selection
   ↓
narrative synthesis
   ↓
paper representation
   ↓
target-specific rendering

The exported paper may include:

• research question,
• context,
• propositions,
• methods,
• evidence,
• results,
• criticism,
• limitations,
• contribution statements,
• references,
• supplementary artifacts.

4. Publication Stages

Publication state is orthogonal to epistemic state.

A paper may be epistemically weak but externally published, or epistemically strong but unpublished.

P1 — Internal Circulation

Purpose:

• collaborator review,
• narrative coherence,
• limitation discovery,
• synthesis of current state.

Characteristics:

• restricted visibility,
• mutable revisions,
• stable Coulomb version identifiers,
• no expectation of venue compliance.

Example:

publication_stage: P1
publication_state: internal-circulation
visibility: collaborators

P2 — External Preprint

Purpose:

• public disclosure,
• wider criticism,
• prior-art visibility,
• citable public version.

Characteristics:

• public artifact,
• external identifier where appropriate,
• explicit versioning,
• linkage back to Coulomb provenance.

Example:

publication_stage: P2
publication_state: external-preprint
external_identifiers:
  arxiv:
  doi:

P3 — Venue Candidate

Purpose:

• target a specific conference, journal, workshop, or other conventional venue.

Characteristics:

• venue-specific format,
• scope matching,
• submission constraints,
• anonymization if required,
• targeted revision cycle.

Example:

publication_stage: P3
publication_state: venue-candidate
target:
  venue:
  track:
  deadline:

External Version of Record

A published conference/journal version should be tracked as an external event, not as a superior Coulomb epistemic state.

external_publication:
  venue:
  doi:
  accepted_at:
  published_at:

5. Publication Adapter

Conceptual interface:

                 COULOMB GRAPH
                      │
              Publication Adapter
              ┌───────┴────────┐
              ▼                ▼
           IMPORT            EXPORT
              │                │
        DOI / PDF / ...   graph selection
              │                │
              ▼                ▼
           Digest          renderer
                                │
                                ▼
                         venue-compatible paper

6. Export Targets

Potential exporters:

• Markdown
• LaTeX
• PDF
• DOCX
• JATS
• arXiv bundle
• BibTeX
• CSL JSON
• venue-specific templates

The long-term interface may resemble:

publish --stage P2 --target arxiv
publish --stage P3 --target neurips

without making those targets part of the core ontology.

7. Scientific Identity Interoperability

Where useful, map Coulomb identities and contributions to:

• ORCID for researchers,
• DOI for persistent outputs,
• ROR for institutions,
• CRediT for conventional contribution statements.

Coulomb's internal contribution graph may remain richer than any external standard.

8. Agent Authorship and Contribution

Coulomb should record machine contributions explicitly.

External publication adapters must comply with target-venue rules while preserving internal provenance.

Example internal provenance:

contributors:
  - actor: human:alice
    contributions: [conceptualization, validation]
  - actor: agent:critic-v4
    contributions: [literature-analysis, counterexample-search]

If an external venue does not recognize agent authorship, the adapter should transform presentation without erasing the internal record.

9. Design Principle

Interoperate at the boundary; do not duplicate legacy publication infrastructure internally.