Is it possible for one to get involved in doing research without sufficient academic background?<p>And how difficult is getting the papers submitted to top conferences without good academic backing. And have people been able to do it? Some examples would be helpful.
Speaking as a mathematics professor --<p>In my opinion, it's like asking "Can I become a concert pianist without taking piano lessons?" Well, sure; indeed, it's been done before.<p>But if you're going to put in the hard work, why not enroll in a Ph.D. program? They're designed <i>precisely</i> to train you to become an effective researcher. And they often offer funding.<p>Earning a PhD is hard. Becoming a strong researcher outside of a PhD program is <i>even harder</i>.<p>If you want to put in the necessary effort, then absent unusual circumstances I'd recommend earning a PhD. All sorts of infrastructure is in place to help you succeed.
One must be proficient in research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative techniques. Research should also bring out something new so that other researchers could further explore findings of that research paper. If research is substantive it can find place in research journals. I have not done PhD but got my work published in research journals. You can also publish your work open source using SSRN, Research Gate and Academia (dot) edu.
In theory it should be possible, in practice it is rare. At most top conferences industry track papers are somewhat more likely to be accepted from non-academic contributors.<p>The following is based on my decades of industry experience as well as recently completing a PhD in software engineering.<p>PhD candidates are effectively doing an apprenticeship to become proficient academic researchers. It takes smart, determined individuals anything from 3 to 10 years to graduate with a PhD. Over half who start drop out. Most candidates have one or more supervisors who guide, mentor and co-author papers.<p>Academic papers need to reference prior work. In most areas the credible references are mostly behind pay-walled repositories for which you either have to pay thousands to access or use your academic institutions access to them. The raises two issues: Firstly, if you are not up to speed with the state-of-the-art, then you can't tell whether your research is yielding paper worthy results. Secondly, you lack suitable referencing of prior-work.<p>All academically credible journals and conferences have a peer review process. Even experienced researchers get more rejections than acceptances. The big secret is that you need to cite "the right papers" in your background / prior-work section, in order for reviewers to take your submission seriously. It has been said that some reviewers flick to the biblio and if their papers are cited then they are more in favour of an accept decision.<p>Since you are asking your question on HN, perhaps you already are a member of IEEE or ACM. As a minimum you could peruse some of their publications or even attend a conference in an area that is of interest to you. That will give you a far clearer picture of the standard and areas of current research. Of course, such conferences are an excellent networking opportunity which will allow you to ask your question of people who are currently active in your field of interest.
Which research area? Some are going to be easier than others depending on the resources, theoretical background required, community access you need, competition etc.<p>I would look up papers in the field that are in the niche you want to write about and consider if it's realistic you could write something of similar quality. Writing well (which might include writing rigorous proofs), knowing about related work and putting your work in the context of past research is essential to getting published.<p>Also, why do you want to publish papers? Why top conferences? Why not write an article about your work or release it as software? There's other ways to let people know about any new ground you've broken.
>Is it possible for one to get involved in doing research without sufficient academic background?<p>Yes. For a single counterexample consider Simon Peyton Jones [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Peyton_Jones" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Peyton_Jones</a>