User talk:Rmrichman

Hello, Rmrichman and a belated welcome to Wikipedia! I see that you've already been around awhile and wanted to thank you for your contributions. Though you seem to have been successful in finding your way around, you may benefit from following some of the links below, which help one get the most out of Wikipedia. If you have any questions you can ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or by typing four tildes "~~~~"; this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you are interested in learning more about contributing, you might want to consider being "adopted" by a more experienced editor or joining a WikiProject to collaborate with others in creating and improving articles of your interest. Click here for a directory of all the WikiProjects. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Happy editing! Orange Mike | Talk 15:13, 15 October 2012 (UTC) Getting Started Wikipedia Tutorial • The five pillars of Wikipedia How to: edit a page • upload an image Getting Help Frequently Asked Questions Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Policies and Guidelines Neutral point of view • Reliable sources Verifiability • Citing sources • No original research What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons Simplified Manual of Style • Three-revert rule Copyrights • Policy for non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism • Sock puppetry Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The Community Community Portal • Adopt-a-user program Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • Resolving disputes Build consensus • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists Things to do Be bold in editing • Help develop an article Pages needing attention • Peer review Join a WikiProject • Translating articles Cleaning up: General • Spam • Vandalism Miscellaneous Categories • Disambiguity • Stubs User pages • Talk pages Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Caution about citing yourself

Hello, Rmrichman. We welcome your contributions to Wikipedia, but if you are affiliated with some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may need to consider our guidance on conflicts of interest.

All editors are required to comply with Wikipedia's neutral point of view content policy. People who are very close to a subject often have a distorted view of it, which may cause them to inadvertently edit in ways that make the article either too flattering or too disparaging. People with a close connection to a subject are not absolutely prohibited from editing about that subject, but they need to be especially careful about ensuring their edits are verified by reliable sources and writing with as little bias as possible.

If you are very close to a subject, here are some ways you can reduce the risk of problems:

• Avoid or exercise great caution when editing or creating articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with.
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Please familiarize yourself with relevant content policies and guidelines, especially those pertaining to neutral point of view, verifiability of information, and autobiographies.

For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have a conflict of interest, please see our frequently asked questions for organizations. Thank you.--Orange Mike | Talk 15:13, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I see that you have added further material in two more articles which cites a paper by an author with a name very similar to yours. If you are editing with the primary purpose of promoting your own research, then you have a conflict of interest. Please review Wikipedia:Conflict of interest guidelines and address the issue explicitly here. If you wish to add material to a page where you may have a conflict of interest, try proposing it on the article talk page. If other editors agree that it is appropriate, then they, or you, can add it after a consensus is obtained. Deltahedron (talk) 07:32, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your comment. I have indeed cited a publication of my own from the refereed scholarly literature in the section on “Applications to fair division” in the article on “Thue-Morse sequence.” In so doing, I have made every effort to abide by the guidelines in the section, “Citing yourself,” on Wikipedia’s “Conflict of Interest” page.

My initial edit a year ago included a reference only to my publication, since it was the only one I knew of at the time. In the last year I have learned of the published work of three other groups in this area, so I added descriptions of their work, including references, in the last week. Even though none of them treated the subject with the mathematical rigor that I did, I moved discussion of two of the other groups ahead of mine because their work is better known.

This section is about applications of mathematics to subjects that are typically not math-intensive. These applications will benefit those who can use them only if they are discussed (with links back to Thue-Morse) in the articles on those subjects. Hence I have recently edited three other Wikipedia articles for the purpose of showing the relevance of the Thue-Morse sequence to those subjects. Two of these referenced my work and one referenced the work of another. I hope to do more of this with citations to authors other than myself. The intent is to bring useful and relevant mathematics to the attention of those who can use it.

Robert Richman 21:48, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for that clarification. It appears that you have indeed been adding material that introduces your own research and publications into articles which had not previously mentioned that subject. This is clearly promoting yourself and your work, and looks like a violation of COI guidelines. In future please propose this material on the relevant article talk page and wait for a consensus that it is of due weight and relevance. Deltahedron (talk) 22:38, 21 February 2013 (UTC)