How to generate credible research in a non-academic setting How is research normally done in corporate settings or other settings outside of an academic environment? More importantly how do you get the research to be given credit to you by those in the academic community?
For most people, doing good research requires some level of collaboration. Perhaps a lot, perhaps only a little. But you almost certainly need an environment (physical or virtual) in which you can bounce ideas off of others and get some feedback on whether they seem worthwhile to pursue. Many minds are more powerful than one (unlike cooks).
Some organizations like Google and IBM Research provide this collaborative atmosphere and have many opportunities to gain perspective and share ideas. They will have research &quot;groups&quot;, just as a university has groups and seminars. Even in an R1 university in the US, the coffee room can be a most valuable asset.
If you are in academia, but at a small Liberal Arts College in the US, it can be hard to find enough people locally to share ideas with. So you have to cast a wider net to find people interested in the same things you are. One way, perhaps, is to have visitors come to talk to students and give you an opportunity to share ideas.
If you are still a graduate student it is a good time to start to build a collaborative network. You can draw on that of your professor(s) but also among students in the same sub-fields. Conferences are also a good way to do this, provided that you are willing to be outgoing with your peers. Having &quot;business cards&quot; with contact information is good in such environments, though &quot;tapping phones&quot; is probably the modern equivalent.
Another thing that helps you write the papers that makes you &quot;credible&quot; is to make sure that you don't get stuck on individual problems. Your collaborators can help, but so can a simple notebook of research ideas that you develop over time. If one project seems to be blocked, perhaps all you need is to spend some effort on another to &quot;free up&quot; the blocked synapses. Sometimes pushing too hard on a problem just results in spinning the mental wheels. Have a way to take break, either a productive one or, perhaps some aerobic activity.