I have been wondering this for some time. When I was in College (in the fun loving 80’s) I conducted many studies in the community as well as on campus. I am in the advertising business now and I see all sorts of studies across my desk. Dr. Whoever says brocholi is good for you etc…etc…
I was wondering if any of the teeming millions knows whether or not a layperson can write, conduct, and carry-out a proper study if all the legal requirements are met and the correst protocols are followed. I have some friends in the publishing industry who would love to see studies conducted outside university parameters and on a more community based level. I am not talking gallup pole type stuff either. I am talking about region specific studies. Example: East Podunk U.S.A has a lower divorce rate due to etc…etc… Compared to West Podunk U.S.A blah blah blah
with the proper statistics and logical deductions done, why not be able to draft and carry-out personalized studies?
Whether it’s publishable depends on who wants to publish it. There are no legal barriers to you going out and conducting a study, by any methodology, and selling a book about it.
Although the professionals have a very strong advantage, if you do a high-quality study of a subject that no one else is working on, you have a shot at getting it published.
A couple of years ago, a little girl got her science project- a perfectly reasonable test of the validity of ‘therapeutic touch’- published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Of course, depending on what you want to study, how extensively you want to study it, what methodology you intend to use, and how you intend to compile and analyze your results, the barrier isn’t professional standing – it’s money. Professionals (theoretically) have easier access to money in the form of research grants.
I recently read about a high school chemistry class that did an in-class project (funded by a grant from some major company like Texaco; I don’t remember exactly which) on the ratio or linoleic to linolenic acids in french fries and doughnuts in local stores, which was then published in a reputable journal with the whole class listed as co-authors.
The girl who had her study published in JAMA was in sixth grade, IIRC, although she did have some help in study design from her mother.
Professional journals still rely on peer-review, wherein credentials are often reviewed in addition to the treatise at hand. But credentials are not strictly limited to academic degrees and licenses - professional experience can count for a lot as well.
There are also many media choices for access to publication. While you may not get something published in the JAMA, there are alternative publications.
Now the other question inherent in all this is, can a layman conduct a scientifically methodical study? That the journalists don’t always worry about, as their language skills can often get them published sans scientific rigour.
I guess the first question you need to ask yourself is: can you apply the scientific method?
In the field of business there are journal articles published from people in private industry who don’t have a PhD. If the paper is good enough it doesn’t really matter who wrote it.
If you want your work published in a reputable journal, it helps if you know someone who is already established in the field. If they are willing, they can communicate the paper to the journal, which probably vastly increases the chances it will be published, as compared to sending it over the transom to the journal.
One challenge that laymen face is being thorough and medological. It has to be a well conducted study to pass peer review. Many laymen don’t know how to conduct a good study, and thus have flawed data. Then of course is the analysis and drawing valid conclusions.
A second hurdle is presenting the information in the appropriate format. Journals have standards for what they want to see, including the proper sections, layout, sequence of presentation, etc. It has to do with logical presentation for completeness but also custom of the group in question. It would be a good idea to refer to journals in the field in question to get an idea of the expected format.
Then there’s the hurdle of getting past peer review on credentials. I do not know how much of a challenge that is, I can only guess that some people would be more suspect of someone who doesn’t have any credentials in the field. If only because the person may not be familiar with things that are commonly known in that field. Plus a little “professional pride”.
“Experts”, or marketing researchers, often do studies and publish the results (or are commissioned by companies to conduct private studies–say on consumer taste/packaging/pricing preferences). Jakob Nielsen’s Web Usability studies come to mind:
Note: when non-University types do these, they’re usually called “white papers” or simply “reports.”
I’ve talked to some of my grey-haired PHd profs before, and even after decades of publishing they still get frustrated at how difficult it can be… though keep in mind these guys were in the field of genetics, which requires schooling and access to specialized equipment. Every time they get a paper back from the publishing guys it’s full of things that have to be changed, and sometimes flat out rejected not because it’s bad, but because they already have better papers submitted to them that require less tweaking. Depending on the field you choose to study/publish in, it could range from mildly challenging (on the good end) to impossible (bad end) for a layman to get published in a field he’s not activley involved in.
Something else to consider is your purpose for getting published. If it’s just a one-time thing to be able to say “yes! I did it!”, then you needn’t bother getting much background.
If you want to contribute to current knowledge and do it several times, you’ll want to get up to date on what’s been done by who, what should be looked at closer, and do some research into what you’re writing about which may include some training depending on what type of publication you want to get published in. A local society is dead easy, Scientific American would require much more from you.
If you want to use your publishing record as a boost to your career or to get funding/awards and to become recognized and respected in the community of your choice, then just having a simple interest in the subject but no training won’t cut it.
Again the level of difficulty depends on what you’re writing about. Getting published in the field of advanced physics or pharmacutical biochemistry is a lot harder than determining the ethnic make up of a small neihborhood and the reasons these ethnicities gather there.
Getting published as a co-author is much easier, and often requires much less expertise than the guy sticking his name on the paper as lead author. You may need no training at all - just help out the team or partner. You can also learn what it takes to get published from there.
I think mike[sup]3[/sup] nailed it. It really depends on what kind of study you want to do. If, for example, you want to publish a paper in theoretical physics, you need:
A solid background in theoretical physics, probably concentrating in the particular are you want to publish in. Obviously, this is not an easy thing to acquire.
A decent knowledge of the literature; you won’t have much luck publishing something that everyone knows because some other guy published it 20 years ago. This is also not easy to acquire, as the papers will be in journals that you’ll only have access to at a university library and will often be difficult to follow anyway.
You’ll also want cash, as publishing is often expensive, and it would certainly help if you worked at a reputable institution of some sort, because there’s bound to be at least some institutional inertia to overcome.
On the other hand, there must be other areas which are not as difficult to publish in. And you can easily enough do research with someone as, for example, an undergrad, and get co-authorship.