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Questions tagged [independent-researcher]

An independent researcher is not affiliated with any university or academic institution, and does not receive grants from any such institutions.

230 votes
15 answers
71k views

I believe I have solved a famous open problem. How do I convince people in the field that I am not a crank?

I am interested in the situation where you have a very interesting result. For instance, you have solved a very important open problem. However, you are not known in the field and do not have any ...
Learning's user avatar
  • 2,401
193 votes
15 answers
24k views

How to stop hopping the learning chain and actually begin somewhere?

Here is what I feel whenever I find something interesting and feel like pursuing it : Oh so I like X (Computer Graphics), let me read up papers/books about it. Ok let me begin with reading up Y (...
Amit Tomar's user avatar
  • 1,869
155 votes
11 answers
102k views

Does one need to be affiliated with a university to publish papers?

Assume you have already completed your undergrad and have been working for a number of years. Does one need to be part of a university or a learning institution to publish papers?
Eminem's user avatar
  • 2,237
90 votes
12 answers
17k views

Why do researchers need universities?

This is a follow-up question to How are junior professors evaluated for promotion? and probably an even more naive question. If I'm understanding the answer correct, professors need funding to do ...
Allure's user avatar
  • 133k
68 votes
7 answers
17k views

Is it possible take take part in a research project if I'm not a part of a university?

I graduated with a Masters of Engineering, concentrating in digital signal processing, in particular medical and audio, almost two years ago. I've always been interested in research, but due to ...
Phonon's user avatar
  • 1,403
67 votes
5 answers
7k views

How can a layman easily get the consensus view of what academia *thinks* about a subject?

I'm a total layman, but sometimes I have really random specific questions, like What does science say about the transfer of learning, or what is the distribution of different of sexual fetishes in the ...
JCool's user avatar
  • 695
63 votes
9 answers
53k views

Doing research outside of academia, without a PhD?

I love learning and solving problems (I'm in math/ computer science) and I'm also very motivated. However, I don't have fantastic grades and so I don't expect to get into any top graduate program. ...
anonymous's user avatar
  • 813
55 votes
9 answers
15k views

Is it true that people willingly provide their articles that were published in journals?

I live in a third world country. I barely make ends meet so I cannot afford to go to college. However my passion for academics never died so I kept self learning with online materials. However beyond ...
vjj8919's user avatar
  • 519
46 votes
10 answers
9k views

Can I get an office in a university as an independent scholar?

I have a math-related PhD but currently work as a software developer. One day, when I retire from software development, is it possible to "join" a local university's math/cs department as an ...
Shuheng Zheng's user avatar
46 votes
5 answers
9k views

What did Grothendieck mean by "the capacity to be alone" in the context of mathematical research?

I'm confused about a statement Alexander Grothendieck made in his book Récoltes et semailles. In fact, most of these comrades whom I gauged to be more brilliant than me have gone on to become ...
jasmine's user avatar
  • 1,493
46 votes
5 answers
17k views

Why are most cranks old men?

What To Do When The Trisector Comes claims that most cranks (for lack of a better word) are old men (trisector refers to a specific type of crank): One obvious characteristic of trisectors is that ...
Allure's user avatar
  • 133k
45 votes
7 answers
7k views

Do journals in general have any kind of policy regarding papers submitted by someone without a research affiliation?

Assuming that there are no ethical or legal concerns involved, in general, how would academic journals handle research submitted from the general public (e.g., if a carpenter were to perform a study ...
Speldosa's user avatar
  • 2,482
43 votes
7 answers
5k views

What can I do to get academic credit/recognition from my hobby project?

I've created an improved textual parsing algorithm, as a part of my hobby project. In comparison to existing ones, it provides better performance and memory efficiency. I haven't published my project ...
user626528's user avatar
42 votes
12 answers
13k views

Can students finish much of their PhD thesis before applying to a PhD program?

Are students allowed to complete a large portion of their research independently, then enroll in a PhD program, apply for a defense panel within the first semester, and quickly finish the thesis? Has ...
Village's user avatar
  • 12.5k
41 votes
4 answers
12k views

Is this footnote from one of Perelman's papers meant to be a joke, or is it mandatory to list one's source of funding?

In one of Grigori Perelman's papers, on the first page there's a footnote where he says, ∗St.Petersburg branch of Steklov Mathematical Institute, Fontanka 27, St.Petersburg 191011, Russia. Email:...
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