The OpenPhd project aim is not to encourage people to pursue PhD or arguing against PhD programs. OpenPhD wants to encourage a mindset of self-training to become a scientist or research (creating a framework, peer-network and tools ) and to catalyze independent research projects. OpenPhd is not a program to offer online PhD or connect you to Universities for PhD programs. It is an attempt to create a new framework to become a scientist and researcher without enrolling in PhD programs.
OpenPhd is a journey to find questions like
How someone becomes a researcher or scientist without a PhD?
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How someone creates credibility and trust in the scientific community without a PhD?
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How someone finds a way to self-training framework to participate and contribute to the scientific community?
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How someone teaches himself/herself to think like a scientist ( acquiring scientific mindset) and apply this mindset to other domains and in general life.
“In the information age, finding scientific knowledge/papers/books is not a problem but how to select the right information, understand it, use it ( or apply it) is a real problem. How to think like a scientist and how to drive conclusion from vast amount of research data/studies is the problem that non-academician often face due to lack of training and It is the problem on which OpenPhd project wants to work on.”
It is undeniable that If anyone who wants to become a scientist or researcher, they need training and time. There is no shortcut ( there should not be). Either you have to train yourself or find the institution to train you. But you have to put time be committed to the quest.
In the world of institutional education, PhD is a way to be trained as a scientist and researcher.
But what are the other options?
What about self-training?
Is it possible to become a credible scientist or researcher without a PhD?
In an ideal PhD scenario. PhD process put a candidate in a spot and provide an opportunity to study under experienced mentors, scientist and the opportunity to interact with other fellow students with the same mindset. PhD process trained them for a lifelong quest to ask the right questions and tools to find the right answer.
But what if a curious, science lover ( adult or middle-aged man/woman ) wants to participate in science and want to participate in scientific research but not as a human subject ( where they participate as a human subject in some scientific studies) but as the researcher?
Do they have to acquire a Masters degree and then apply for PhD in order to learn science and contribute? But it is not a feasible or practical solution. There must be some other ways to find some framework to address this case.
And in the future, this will not be a just one case but could be a standard case. We need more scientists in future as we need more engineers in present. But You can become an engineer by building things and showing it to the world but to be a scientist or researcher it is not straight forward. It is a different ball game. It is complex, it required access to tools, data and also the credibility.
I want to participate in the science and research ( I have serious interest in neuroscience, psychology and human physiology ) and I am ready to give my time, energy and whatever it takes but I don’t know how?
These are the questions that I am personally thinking. To address these questions, I started OpenPhD
I am an average guy who wants to do research in the field of neuroscience. I want to understand how exactly my brain learns. If I am not able to learn something then what is the reason. I want to study adult human learning but I want to research my brain and my own learning patterns. I want to map my brain when I am learning anything new and collect data, analyze, observe pattern to conclude some theories. I am ready to give my time, energy and life to this field. This is my research project.
But I am 28 years old and I do not have financial resources to enrol into universities. Also, I have no chance to get admission in the good universities as I have to face competition with masters graduate whose applications look far more attractive to the Institute. And I totally get that.
I also want to remain independent which is the most important part. I think it is important for the scientific community to encourage and create a framework for independent (or small group) of research and scientist.
So a self-training framework is the only option here. Self-Training with peers help.
But in the current world, this alternative has big roadblocks.
Even if I self-train me and do the same things which a PhD students do. Chances that I will able be accepted as researcher in scientific community or in society is close to zero. This credibility and trust is a big problem for self-train scientist and reseacher.
For example, if I start researching and published research papers or proposed any theory even it is good there are chances it never is taken seriously. As an independent researcher, there is no professor or scientist will accept me as his student to guide and will agree to his name involved.
I have no access to research equipment, access to advanced labs, access to data, access to peer review etc. I have no financial support to focus on research as full-time or have a science-related part-time job-related. I have to do a part-time job which will take my time & energy and will put me outside of my research area on a daily basis which is a discouraging thing.
There are many odds. But still, I want to do it. I want to know about my brain and how it learns new things.
Now, if I think about my situation. I know that I have to spend a lot of time to read standard books, previous work of neuroscientists, current work and researcher papers on this subject. I have to read standard books and learn in a structured way.
I cannot do it without proper guidance. I need someone who can guide me. A teacher or professor or scientist or research who can give me direction, give me feedback and help me to get a scientific mindset.
So here the following problems
1- I have to find someone for guidance (mentoring) in the related field
2- Financial aid so that I can put my full time into study
3- Access to data, labs and research equipment for experiments
What is the solution?
Universities do not have a solution to these questions. Only the individual scientists and academics working in universities, private research organization, startups and companies can help.
I started OpenPhD to figure out the solution. I want to create a framework for people like me who wants to study and do research in the field of science.
With OpenPhd, my idea is to convince experienced researcher, scientist & academician working in universities, private science research organizations or companies to provide guidance, data and lab access to candidates who want to participate in scientific research.
How can they help a researcher like me?
Scientist and Academician can make a huge difference by simply engaging with me in one to one communication to give me guidance, answering questions and reading their work. If a candidate like me have someone to his back whom he can email to ask questions, consult, share writings and receive feedback. It will change everything for me.
How will it help the financial problem?
Private research organizations, research startups, research organizations can help a candidate like me to provide opportunities for remote Internship and part-time work in research-based private companies. Companies can benefit from this type of associations and they can get to know the new research candidate for future team building.
What is the first objective?
Few things about me and my interest in research
My name is Amit and I am a 27-year-old guy based in Bangalore (India). Currently, I am self — studying the subject “Brain”(and fields related to the brain). I wanted to understand what adult human learning patterns are and focusing on my own brain learning pattern. I want to know how my brain (specifically based on brain physiology and anatomy ) learn or not learn new things.
An individual human can understand his/her own brain ( learning pattern) more accurately compare to another person as an observer because he/she notice, observe and predict the mind and can feel changes in brain pattern ( emotional or sense of self). When we read general brain research studies, we lack the emotional part ( or the role of conscious and internal self-experience) and it’s a role in the learning. What individual can do about it? So studying my own brain, doing some experiments and collect the subjective and objective data and taking it to the next level as a research project is something that I am interested in. I think it is an alternative approach to understand how the brain, mind and learning works.
With the help of OpenPhD
I want to connect with scientist, researcher, and academicians working in the field to seek guidance and to go in the right direction.
But why I want to start OpenPhd as a platform/ organization?
I work in the tech-product industry ( mobile App, SaaS, platforms, industry, web apps, websites ) and I also founded startups. I see a need of an organization ( and products) which address the question of “ How to be get training as a scientist and how to participate in science without Phd degree.”. So I want to build products, tools and network of people under one organization. So I created the concept of OpenPhd.
I am searching for a co-founder; mentorship; financial aid and internship opportunities in the field of science and research to learn practical things. OpenPhD will be a platform ( a digital product/web platform ) and a framework for a candidate like me who wants to self-train themselves in the research field and want to do an independent research project or want to participate in mainstream research projects.
As I mentioned already, I am looking for a partner/co-founder/mentor for OpenPhD. Please read the second blog to know more about it here. Currently, I am the only one who is working on OpenPhD. I Posted about OpenPhd co-founder post on AngelList here https://angel.co/openphd-1/jobs/236044-cofounder
I hope I will get the support of scientists, researcher and academician working in the field of science.
My email [ openphd.project@gmail.com]
