Become an EarthChronicle.com Researcher!

The entire purpose of EarthChronicle.com, is to provide a place where visitors can be confident that what they see and what they read is one, accurate, and two, Public Domain. That way they may freely quote, copy, and use it however they need to. This means someone has to be ultimately responsible to ensure that every article passes both of these important tests. This is what makes EarthChronicle.com special (see our Philosophy). And besides our editors that job falls to our researchers.

1. Accuracy

We need to very carefully check that what is written in every essay is correct. For example, Josephine Tey�s excellent book The Daughter of Time, beautifully lays out how people have known for hundreds of years that Henry VII Tudor most likely had the young princes in the tower killed, not Richard III. However, if you open the average European history book, it still blames Richard III. There are all kinds of very sneaky untruths that are well known to experts of a topic, but that still are widely circulated in speech and print. Similarly, the Great Wall of China is not visible from the moon, though I'd often heard it's the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that is. This �fact� comes from an ancient Chinese legend, hardly a credible source, but then� almost no one knows its source, so it is widely believed. Neither are koalas bears, they're marsupials. (It is incorrect to call them �koala bears� they should simply be called �koalas�.) To make things even more difficult, new discoveries are constantly changing how we look at the world, and overturning old truths. This time last year I would have included �Giant Pandas�, however, recent genetic studies have overturned previous thinking and decided they should be called �Panda Bears� after all. (See Fun Facts #1) This is why essays should preferably be researched by people who know a topic inside out, and can make corrections, or if necessary dump an entire essay because it�s not accurate.

We also need researchers to confirm the authenticity of the research citations used to back up an essay. There are four main problems. One, sources may be real but untrustworthy, whether political or business propaganda or individuals who have a real or imagined interest in an issue. Two, the author may have cited real sources, but they don't prove what the author claims. An author may have fabricated quotes, attributed ideas not in the source cited, or taken quotes out of context. Three, the author of a submission may have fabricated sources. For example, US president Richard Nixon�s campaign is supposed to have circulated a damning pamphlet against his opponent, George McGovern, backed up by around 30 citations from authoritative experts and scholars. (We have yet to track down this pamphlet, if you have any info about it, please let us know.) Finally, there's the opposite problem: the author may have plagarized, borrowing an idea without citing the source. If the accuracy of a submission's sources are questionable or you can't confirm them to make sure they really say what the submission claims, check with us at EarthChronicle.com. We'll draw on other resources to help answer your questions, or advise you on how to proceed.

You can be an amateur with a lot of time to track down citations at the library and bone up on a subject to assess it�s accuracy. In this case, you�ll most likely get all kinds of different articles. You can be major researcher who understands your field inside out. In this case, you may only rarely be called upon to assist when we need to check an article that falls in your area of expertise (unless you�d like papers outside your field as well� in that case just ask!). But whoever you are, YOU provide the intellectual security that makes EarthChronicle.com safe for people to research, look up, and trust. In the process of this research it�s quite possible you will wind up writing secondary articles that will wind up linked to the main article. This is also a wonderful opportunity for professors, scholars, and serious students to put together a first draft for research papers with the support of a talented research team and proofreader! You'll be credited as the researcher for the article and the author of any secondary articles that help explain it, and you�ll have a team helping you jump start your own writing!

2. Public Domain

All submissions must be Public Domain, including written essays, webpages, pictures, sound files, etc., etc. When you submit your work to EarthChronicle.com, you permit us to freely distribute it. Your work becomes part of the Public Domain, anyone, anywhere (including you) can make free use and have access to that information at anytime. As a researcher, it is primarily your responsibility to study the topic and find out if any material in the article does not qualify as Public Domain. The author and proofreader will provide any support they can, but realistically, the main burden for this task will fall on you. In most cases, your first job researching for accuracy will make any copyright issues clear and obvious. Your secondary responsibility is proofreading, just as the rest of your team will assist you in checking factual accuracy and Public Domain issues. If you notice an awkward phrase or part of the essay that is unclear to you, don�t trust the proofreader to take care of it. If it�s grammatically correct but unreadable, what good is it? EarthChronicle.com takes a common sense approach to grammar and punctuation: if it improves the readability of an essay and makes the meaning clearer, then its necessary. If it doesn�t, then it�s purely a matter of opinion and style.

Finally, since all work submitted to EarthChronicle.com becomes Public Domain, if you cite someone else�s work, it must also be legally part of the Public Domain. For example, an article that copies a chapter from John Grisham�s latest book would not be acceptable. John Grisham holds the rights to his book, and only he has the legal right to make his work Public Domain. John Grisham could post his latest book for submission, but no one else can. If proper citations are included in the article however, you can mention an idea of John Grisham�s or quote an important sentence or two. For more information on Public Domain and Copyright issues click here. This is how visitors to EarthChronicle.com know that material posted is freely available to use in any way you can imagine. These are the challenges for our researchers, so if you think you have the patience and research skills necessary, tell us you�d like to volunteer as a researcher. Email us now!

This is why we hope experts and scholars will take the time to submit their own articles. In order to encourage you to make your information available in the Public Domain, EarthChronicle.com will help you assemble a complete team including researcher and proofreader to assist the initial phases of your writing. Further, will happily host a round table for your own project. Your own colleagues from across campus or across the globe can trade information easily and develop your project by sending it to your own EarthChronicle.com round table where it will be posted for all of your project members to see and respond to. Your work will retain the names of its authors in perpetuity so the whole world knows who deserves credit for your research. And you and your team will be part of a thrilling experience in the EarthChronicle.com community where history is no longer something that you simply read about, but something happening right in front of everyone�s eyes. It also gives your ideas instant public exposure so that your colleagues around the world will know of your achievements the moment they happen! Email us now to reserve your Round Table today!