Independent Research

[lelick1234]

Hey Folks, 

Does one have to be in a graduate program to have their research viewed by professional scholars? What barriers would one face in conducting independent research?

[danwaterfield]

Yes, pretty much. You might see on papers etc 'independent scholar' but this is usually a signifier that such and such a person (always in the humanities) has got their PhD, done their post-doc, and is now either retired and writing books or borders the line between popular historical work and semi-active research. 

 

tl;dr Yes.

[dr. t]

Generally, you lack the institutional support apparatus required to generate publishable scholarship. An institutional library, colleagues willing to read and provide critical feedback on your work, and funding for travel are all incredibly important factors in your ability to create work that journals will find acceptable. This is not to say it's impossible to publish without a university affiliation, but the affiliation makes it substantially easier. 

 

If you lack a university affiliation and any sort of academic credential (i.e. you don't have at least an MA) publishing becomes nearly impossible. Although there's some academic snobbery going on here, this is mostly the result of the fact that you don't have the professional training to generate publishable work.

[lelick1234]

So an MA is a must pretty much? 

[knp]

Just anecdotally, when I worked in an alt-ac institution, I think we had one or two recent college graduates who were employed there get small things published. But that's because we had "an institutional library, colleagues willing to read and provide critical feedback on your work, and funding for travel primary sources worth working on held in the institutional collection." Those resources really are all important for producing publishable academic work, and enrolling in a master's or PhD do both seem more likely ways to access them than being employed at a tiny random museum/academic institute in a weird part of the country.

[Riotbeard]

I got an R & R as an undergrad, so technically you can do it, but it's definitely not typical