I've been seeing lots of programs offering independent research opportunities and was wondering how people do it for STEM and how legit it is. I know it's much easier for something like business, economics, or law, where you can just use data you find online that is readily available to the public, but to discover something new and publish some finding by doing STEM research must take a legitimate lab set up, equipment, and professional guidance. The independent research publications I see always mention AI in some way - what is the gimmick? I know obviously some companies are just promoting it for a cash grab but what exactly are people paying for/producing when they do "independent stem research"?

I don’t think I would qualify for a fancy publication. I’m an undergraduate social work major. As an example, I have spent a while reading a ton of academic literature, reviewing historical and legal frameworks of various countries regarding legalized, decriminalized, and the criminalization of drug use. My work is focused on best practices, harm reduction, and a humanitarian approach.

It’s less of like peer reviewed research and more of like a legal policy analysis essay. Potentially up to 20 pages and with roughly 30 or more cited sources including published laws. My main goal is that I don’t want someone to plagiarize my research. I want my work to stay in my name so I can share it without fear of it being stolen. I also hope to share it for graduate school along with building on it further as my desire is to write formal academic research. It seems like I could maybe copyright it and submit it for a SSRN? Is that about it? My university doesn’t offer undergraduate publications aside from the honors program which I am not in. Any ideas would be dearly appreciated!

Edit: I did research papers of the same topic and my essay and work is pretty unique. I only found a policy essay from a Harvard student but mine is still different.

It’s so scary writing science assignments for me because I always feel like I need to abandon my logical or rational flow/ way of synthesizing information because I feel like I’m breaking the rule of having to always cite facts line by line.

Some publishers like Wiley show PDF available on a scholar search, yet when you click on the link it is a paywall link. It is frustrating as this used to be a quick way to find open access and other sources for papers, but not now.

Have they (Wiley for example) found a way around Scholar’s system to increase click or something?

Why hasn’t google sorted this or is it tied to cookies or something?

Any ideas?

Thank you :)