Reputation and vote weight
Reputation is how ARIADNE replaces the editor. Nobody grants it: it comes only from the judgement of other people, it is counted separately in each field, and it decides how much your vote, your flag and your review count in that field. Every rule on this page is enforced by the contract (the program on the blockchain that runs ARIADNE) or computed from its public records, so anyone can check the arithmetic.
To collect the reputation your articles have earned, see Claim your reputation.
What reputation is
Section titled “What reputation is”- A whole number per address and per field. Your reputation in Health sciences is independent of your reputation in Psychology: being respected in medicine gives no weight in history.
- Public. Your profile shows your reputation in each field, and anyone can recompute it from the blockchain.
- It never decreases. There is no penalty and no decay over time.
- Nobody gains reputation from their own action. You cannot vote for your own article, review or comment, and a vote from an author of the article for one of its reviews grants nothing.
- One per network. Reputation on TestNet is for testing and carries no value on MainNet (see TestNet and MainNet).
How reputation is earned
Section titled “How reputation is earned”| When someone else… | who gains | in which field | how much |
|---|---|---|---|
| votes for an article | each confirmed author, when they claim it | the article’s primary field, and half of that in its secondary field | a share of the article’s total vote weight (below) |
| marks a review as useful | the reviewer, immediately | the article’s primary field | 3 × the voter’s weight (nothing if the voter is an author of the article) |
| votes for a comment | the commenter, immediately | the article’s primary field | the voter’s weight ÷ 5, rounded down |
| the author resolves a comment | the commenter, immediately | the article’s primary field | 5 |
A vote for a comment from someone whose weight is below 5 (reputation below 16) is recorded but grants nothing.
Reviews earn the most: a review that people find useful is worth three times their weight each. Comments earn a little, and most of all when the author marks one as resolved. Articles earn smaller amounts through votes, shared among their authors, and only when each author claims.
Article reputation, exactly
Section titled “Article reputation, exactly”Votes for an article do not move anyone’s reputation when they are cast. They add up in the article as its total weight, called T here. The article has N equal shares, where N is 1 plus the number of declared co-authors, fixed when it was published.
- A confirmed co-author is entitled to T ÷ N, rounded down.
- The publishing author (the submitter) is entitled to T ÷ N, rounded up: the remainder of the division goes to them.
- Each author claims with their own transaction. The claim adds to their primary-field reputation what they are entitled to and have not claimed yet, as far as the daily limit allows, and adds half of that amount (rounded down) to the secondary field, if the article has one, within that field’s own daily limit.
- A claim is refused when there is nothing new to claim, or when the day’s limit in the primary field is already used up.
- The share of a declared co-author who never confirms is never claimed by anyone.
- Claims pause while the article is disputed, and reputation not claimed before an article is retracted is lost.
Worked example. An article with two declared co-authors (N = 3) receives votes of weight 1, 2, 3 and 5, so T = 11. Each confirmed co-author is entitled to 11 ÷ 3 rounded down, which is 3; the publishing author to 11 ÷ 3 rounded up, which is 4. When the publishing author claims, their reputation grows by 4 in the primary field and by 2 in the secondary field. If the article later receives a vote of weight 4 (T = 15), each author is entitled to 5 in total: 2 more for each co-author and 1 more for the publishing author.
The daily limit
Section titled “The daily limit”An address can gain at most 50 reputation per field per day (a UTC day), from all sources together.
- Reviews and comments: whatever exceeds the day’s limit is lost.
- Articles: nothing is lost. What cannot be claimed today stays claimable on later days. Only the half that goes to the secondary field is not carried over: if the secondary field’s limit is used up, that part is lost.
Example. On one day, three people mark your review as useful. Their reputations in the article’s primary field are 25, 100 and 400, so their weights are 6, 11 and 21 (see the table below), and they would grant you 18, 33 and 63. The first vote grants 18. The second grants 32, which brings you to the limit of 50. The third grants nothing. You gain 50 that day, and the rest is lost.
The limit is why a burst of votes, real or arranged, can only move a person’s reputation slowly.
The weight of a vote
Section titled “The weight of a vote”Every vote (for an article, a review or a comment) and every flag is weighted by the reputation of the person in the primary field of the article at that moment:
weight = 1 + floor( square root of reputation )| Reputation in the field | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 25 | 100 | 400 | 2 500 | 10 000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight of a vote | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 51 | 101 |
- The weight is computed once, when you vote, and stored with the vote. Reputation you gain later does not change it.
- Each person votes once per article, review or comment, and a vote can never be changed or withdrawn.
- There are no downvotes. Weak work simply receives no votes; work that breaks the rules is handled by flags.
- A review’s recommendation (accept, minor revision, major revision, reject) has no weight of its own. The votes that mark it useful do.
Why the square root
Section titled “Why the square root”The square root keeps influence growing slowly: a newcomer counts, and an expert counts more, but never overwhelmingly. Someone with reputation 100 counts 11 times as much as a newcomer, not 100 times. To double a weight of 11 you need four times the reputation (400 for a weight of 21). And because everyone starts at weight 1, a newcomer’s vote is never worthless.
What reputation is used for
Section titled “What reputation is used for”| Use | Rule | More |
|---|---|---|
| Vote weight | your votes for articles, reviews and comments weigh as shown above, in the article’s primary field | Comment, mention and vote |
| Scores in lists | each article’s score in the feed, search and lists is the total weight of its votes | Search |
| Flags | you need at least 10 reputation in the article’s primary field to flag it, and your flag weighs like your vote | Flags, disputes and governance |
| Expertise for the seal | a review counts toward the Peer-reviewed seal if its author has reputation 10 in the article’s primary or secondary field (or a verified ORCID iD with 3 works in its area on OpenAlex) | The Peer-reviewed seal |
What reputation is not
Section titled “What reputation is not”- It cannot be bought. No payment creates reputation. The deposits you pay when you act cover storage only (see Costs and deposits).
- It is not imported from ORCID. Linking your ORCID iD shows your name and helps people find you, but it never changes your reputation, which is earned here. A verified ORCID iD with works in a field can make your reviews count toward the seal, which is a separate rule from reputation (see Link your ORCID iD).
- It is not granted by anyone. Governance cannot give or remove reputation, and neither can the people who run ARIADNE.
- It is not a guard against every abuse. One person can create several addresses. Groups of fresh addresses that vote for each other gain reputation slowly (weight 1 each, damped by the square root and the daily limit), but they are not prevented. Stronger protections are planned after the first phase.