Independent researcher?

[JodyMitchell]

I passed my PhD a couple of months ago and have hourly paid lecturing work at two different universities for the coming year. I started doing teaching these modules a few years ago and although I know things can change at any time, they seem to be happy to employ me from year to year. I'd like to just carry on doing what I'm doing. I don't want a permanent position as I don't want to take on all the other responsibilities, I just want to teach and I am drawing a small private pension that just about supports me.

I have (I think) some strong ideas for new research/articles but I wonder the following:
Do people manage to do research and writing/publishing without being full time and permanently affilliated to a university? Or would it be acceptable to say I am affiliated with the university if I just teach a few hours on an hourly paid basis? Alternatively, how does it look to journals if I present myself as an independent researcher?

Do post doc positions exist where the research ideas are generated by the researcher rather than the department? Do people in my position ever approach a university with their ideas and ask for support, not necessarily financial ? There seem to be several older people in the department where I did my phD who do just a few hours teaching a year but carry on publishing. I guess this is because they are eminent and retiring gradually. But, is this kind of position possible for a researcher just starting out?

Lots of ill formed and naive ideas here!

I can try to answer your questions. I'm in science but I'm guessing that you probably are not (might be wrong) so some thing may not apply.

• some people do write papers / articles without a university affiliation. but not many.

• if you have a university email address, I reckon you have an affiliation with them. If you want a formal link, ask if you can have an 'associate' position or an 'honorary' position. At my uni, 'associate' is given out easily, often to people who've recently left the university but are still collaborating / teaching / writing articles etc. 'honorary' is much harder to get but in theory has more status. both mainly give you an email address and access to the computing network & buildings. you will probably want to talk to your line manager / HoD to clarify this at your uni.

• postdoc fellowships are led by the postdoc who generates the ideas and works with a mentor from the department. they are very competitive. Look at the British Academy call for postdocs for an example. Postdoc jobs tend to be lead by a PI who got a grant and now needs to hire someone to do the work. So if you want an independent research position, you need a fellowship.

• If you can, get a mentor within your current dept. could be your PhD supervisor or anyone else who is nice & supportive. It can be very helpful at this career stage to discuss plans / ideas with someone and find out what is realistic in terms of fellowships / grants / papers etc.

Independent Scholar.

I think it depends on the field. I know two (and a third by reputation via a friend) who have described themselves as that, and other things. They are in the history - archaeology - classics zone where I think this is a lot easier than say particle physics. One in particular seems to be giving talks, publishing, delivering papers at conferences. I think they are all members of whatever the relevant academic associations are and have PhDs. They missed out on, or chose not to follow, a continued university based career.

@MMBaranova and @parietal thanks for the replies. They’re really helpful!

There is a National Coalition of Independent Scholars (it is actually international!):

https://www.ncis.org/national-coalition-independent-scholars-ncis

Thanks @Scampuss that’s really good to know!