Edited by Kate Blackham, Tuesday, 18 June 2024, 13:07
I'm finally starting to get the hang of ResearchGate. Yay, I guess.
But I've hit another snag.
My paper is going to be trapped behind a paywall entirely for 2 years. Two years after publication I am allowed to make my publication available via my institution repository because the embargo will have lifted. Except I don't have an institution. Which I know sounds weird on an OU-hosted blog when I'm an OU employee, but it's because I'm on a teaching-only contract. There is this thing where I can apply to be like an honorory research fellow or something, but that is restricted to research conducted with the OU itself - so if I published a paper as a result of an eSTEeM project I could apply to be a research fellow - but I can't just apply on my own, I need a reference from an OU-approved research academic saying, yes, this person is conducting research connected with the OU. My research on the history of astronomy and archaeoastronomy is not the 'right' sort of research to get honorary fellowship.
So that means I don't know where to post my paper after the embargo. I'm fairly sure the contract explicitly rejects the option of making it publicly accessible on sites like ResearchGate and Academia.edu (to be honest it's been a while since I signed it so may have misremembered, besides it's not like I can do anything until the summer of 2026 anyway).
So I decided to go hunting to see if I could find some sort of institution that I could affliate with formally that would allow me to upload my research somewhere.
It's not looking great, you guys.
There's the National Consortium of Independent Scholars (yes, they go by NCIS), they seem great. Except I can't join them as membership is restricted to people with PhDs or people studying for PhDs, which is not applicable to me and is basically the reason why I'm doing this whole thing anyway.
Then there's the Ronin Institute. They'll let anyone(ish) in - I think. I'm not sure because they're not letting anyone at all in right now because they've been overwhelmed with new joiners and their website doesn't seem to have been updated since 2021.
Some blogs suggest putting my first draft on arXiv. I can't join. I don't have a PhD. I'm not doing a PhD. I need someone to vouch for my academic and research abilities who is already a member of said arXiv and I do all my academic work alone. I wish to God people did want to work with me, but they don't, they never did (where do you think my social anxiety comes from?).
Then there's IGDORE (the Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education). They'll let independent scholars join them. But you have to agree to publish all your research open source. Hahahahahaha. So it's closed to most humanities independent scholars if they want actual respect for their ideas. My husband recommended I just publish everything on the web and not bother with peer review journals at all. So I'm going to be an unhinged crackpot without even the credibility of being published in a legitimate peer reviewed journal (i.e. not some predatory outfit on another continent).
At this point I gave up and have decided to use the affliation of Gentlewoman Scientist because I now realise I am a throwback to the Victorian age and need to find work that is more appropriate to my crinoline undergarments. Like, every door is shut to me.
Please tell me you do not want want me in academia, without actually telling me you do not want me in academia.
Suggestions? Comments are fully open on this.
EDIT:
I've finally found FIRE UK (The Forum for Independent Research Endeavours UK). I had dismissed them because their page on NCIS says that there is a website coming but not ready yet and they were partners to the NCIS and therefore I probably wouldn't meet their standards. But the website is live (if you google them you'll find it, I'm not linking to them, I'm not linking to anyone in case they tell me to never darken their doors again, I know right, paranoia much - this is what this whole debacle has done to me) and they appear to not have restrictions on entry to non-PhDs. No mention of a repository.
It also occurs to me that my long-neglected website where I keep meaning to provide links to useful open resources, kateblackham.space linked on the right, would serve perfectly well as my 'institutional respository' since my institution is me. That will be my solution.
The (many) trials of being an independent scholar
I'm finally starting to get the hang of ResearchGate. Yay, I guess.
But I've hit another snag.
My paper is going to be trapped behind a paywall entirely for 2 years. Two years after publication I am allowed to make my publication available via my institution repository because the embargo will have lifted. Except I don't have an institution. Which I know sounds weird on an OU-hosted blog when I'm an OU employee, but it's because I'm on a teaching-only contract. There is this thing where I can apply to be like an honorory research fellow or something, but that is restricted to research conducted with the OU itself - so if I published a paper as a result of an eSTEeM project I could apply to be a research fellow - but I can't just apply on my own, I need a reference from an OU-approved research academic saying, yes, this person is conducting research connected with the OU. My research on the history of astronomy and archaeoastronomy is not the 'right' sort of research to get honorary fellowship.
So that means I don't know where to post my paper after the embargo. I'm fairly sure the contract explicitly rejects the option of making it publicly accessible on sites like ResearchGate and Academia.edu (to be honest it's been a while since I signed it so may have misremembered, besides it's not like I can do anything until the summer of 2026 anyway).
So I decided to go hunting to see if I could find some sort of institution that I could affliate with formally that would allow me to upload my research somewhere.
It's not looking great, you guys.
There's the National Consortium of Independent Scholars (yes, they go by NCIS), they seem great. Except I can't join them as membership is restricted to people with PhDs or people studying for PhDs, which is not applicable to me and is basically the reason why I'm doing this whole thing anyway.
Then there's the Ronin Institute. They'll let anyone(ish) in - I think. I'm not sure because they're not letting anyone at all in right now because they've been overwhelmed with new joiners and their website doesn't seem to have been updated since 2021.
Some blogs suggest putting my first draft on arXiv. I can't join. I don't have a PhD. I'm not doing a PhD. I need someone to vouch for my academic and research abilities who is already a member of said arXiv and I do all my academic work alone. I wish to God people did want to work with me, but they don't, they never did (where do you think my social anxiety comes from?).
Then there's IGDORE (the Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education). They'll let independent scholars join them. But you have to agree to publish all your research open source. Hahahahahaha. So it's closed to most humanities independent scholars if they want actual respect for their ideas. My husband recommended I just publish everything on the web and not bother with peer review journals at all. So I'm going to be an unhinged crackpot without even the credibility of being published in a legitimate peer reviewed journal (i.e. not some predatory outfit on another continent).
At this point I gave up and have decided to use the affliation of Gentlewoman Scientist because I now realise I am a throwback to the Victorian age and need to find work that is more appropriate to my crinoline undergarments. Like, every door is shut to me.
Please tell me you do not want want me in academia, without actually telling me you do not want me in academia.
Suggestions? Comments are fully open on this.
EDIT:
I've finally found FIRE UK (The Forum for Independent Research Endeavours UK). I had dismissed them because their page on NCIS says that there is a website coming but not ready yet and they were partners to the NCIS and therefore I probably wouldn't meet their standards. But the website is live (if you google them you'll find it, I'm not linking to them, I'm not linking to anyone in case they tell me to never darken their doors again, I know right, paranoia much - this is what this whole debacle has done to me) and they appear to not have restrictions on entry to non-PhDs. No mention of a repository.
It also occurs to me that my long-neglected website where I keep meaning to provide links to useful open resources, kateblackham.space linked on the right, would serve perfectly well as my 'institutional respository' since my institution is me. That will be my solution.