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In general, our colleagues have already announced everything. In my opinion, the key difficulty, as always, is in the heads. For some reason, the Russian scientific community still believes that an “independent researcher” is a priori a freak/layman. At conferences, I have heard phrases from the series: “I hope there are no so-called independent researchers among us.”
In Europe and the United States, this is treated much more calmly, that is, it is just a statement of the situation with the place of work without value judgments.
I think that the position of an independent researcher does not cause any fundamental difficulties. As a rule, this does not interfere with passing even to top conferences. However, I can't call this state of affairs the norm. Any job requires concentration, and leaving for “independent” reflects only a negative trend in the labor market. I would sincerely like talented people to find themselves in the profession of their main specialty. In the meantime, we need to think about what is happening. Here's an interesting reflection. Pay attention to the formula” weekend historian”, which Ilya Vladimirovich speaks about in his speech. https://youtu.be/Q_CbyJhJQ5w
An independent researcher pays for himself / herself, while researchers attached to an institution usually (though not always) receive financial support when participating in conferences or joining some professional unions.
Otherwise, independent researchers make connections at professional events just like everyone else, and they remain grateful to these connections in their own party. Another thing is that, for my taste, being independent, it is not always easy to maintain a passion for research: writing articles, participating in conferences, etc. You need to kick yourself or cheer yourself up with something in the spirit of “independent — it sounds proud”. Although sometimes you really want to be under the wing of an organization, even if it probably cuts off your own.
Independent means no affiliation, right?
As I have heard, not all journals accept the work of independent researchers for publication, they can not be reviewers in every journal, they can not be scientific supervisors in every university, and they can not oppose each dissertation council. This reduces the ability to build relationships with colleagues, and prevents you from earning fame in the academic environment.
These restrictions did not concern me, since I had an affiliation: I was preparing my dissertation as a graduate student of the university. I combined my studies with work, and in two places: I gave lectures as an hourly employee, and there was another job, not academic, in an art gallery. It was difficult to keep up with everything. Now I am an employee of the museum and write articles during working hours, as this is one of my work responsibilities (not the main one). And somehow everything was unloaded at once.
If a researcher does not have the opportunity to live, say, on rent income, if he lives on a salary, then one of two things: either he works as an employee of a scientific organization, where he receives a salary for his research, or he works somewhere else and receives a salary for something else, and does research in his spare time, in fits and starts. This is possible, but any major result (monograph, curation of a large exhibition) is achieved at the cost of overexertion. It's hard.
Based on a new personal experience.
And this character will not give anything like this to strangers, and even more so to people who are not reliable ( read not their own). To be your own, you need to research like this, draw “correct” conclusions like this, and write like this “in our own way”.
Publications. There are no two opinions here: they will be published after an” analysis “of loyalty and “correctness” in accordance with the line of the party, the government, or “uncle Stepa”.
Many people clap on the shoulder and nod approvingly if not delightfully and squint: – well done, here I dug it out, here I gave it, you look what you found! Wise and correct! But this concert quickly ends at the same time as the working day.
Do you want to rewrite history? Put that out of your mind, or we'll throw you out ourselves.
It was something like this at the end of the last century. I suspect that little has changed. After all, human stupidity is eternal, and moral maturation is proceeding at a snail's pace.
Independence is more an allegory than a truth.
I don't know how appropriate it is to talk about complexity… But the situation is akin to ” secret buyer. When he becomes familiar, he is either ignored, or under any plausible “excuse” asked to leave the premises ( in rare cases – “cajoled”).