Just because I’m not in academia doesn’t mean I’m not an academic. For better or for worse, this mindset shaped how I developed my business as an independent scholar – learning everything I could to create an evidence-based approach. Research and literature aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’re integral to my work. And transitioning into science communication required extensive reading, learning, and application. I review new and established science communication research weekly, which is where AI for independent scholars becomes invaluable.
Running a business while staying research-informed is challenging, especially for someone self-taught in this space. (Have you tried reading multiple journal articles while managing client work?). Everything I do – from writing blog posts to applying for fellowships – is research-informed, making efficient research processing crucial. Today, without AI, specifically Claude through Anthropic, I’d be buried in research.
And I WAS buried in research, not too long ago. I wasn’t always an AI advocate. I’ve seen The Matrix. I rode in on my high horse, screaming “my value proposition is me, not a chatbot.” And, I just thought using AI was lazy.
I’ve never been so wrong about anything in my life.
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In this post, I will share how I use AI in my business practices, how helps me stay informed with the research, and how I use it as a thought partner in my entrepreneurial work. AI for independent scholars shouldn’t be a scary prospect, and here is why.
You’re Never Really Gone: A Research Discovery System for Independent Scholars
A core part of my content creation strategy is sharing new and relevant science communication research in a digestible way across social media and blog posts. Whether it’s a new study or a foundational paper from years ago, I need to stay current. But how do you find what you don’t know exists? Before we get into the nitty gritty of AI for independent scholars, let me talk about how I mine for research as an independent scholar.
Strategic Information Gathering
I subscribe to several science communication newsletters and follow organizations in higher education and the public sector that share relevant research. I review these sources each week and save content relevant to my work as an entrepreneur and independent scholar.
Automated Research Alerts
I’ve set up automatic Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar alerts for key terms like “public scholarship” and “public engagement.” This ensures I don’t miss new publications hot off the press.
Organized Storage System
Everything goes into Evernote, my trusted research companion since graduate school. I use Evernote to store, organize, annotate, and summarize research. Each article is placed in a “notebook” and tagged based on its topic and potential business application – whether it’s informing my coaching framework or for a future blog post.
And now I have an ever-growing database of hundreds of research articles, each waiting to be reviewed and distilled for practical use. This is where AI for independent scholars becomes a game-changer for processing and synthesizing this wealth of information.
From Academic to Independent Scholar: Evolving My Research Approach
When I was brainstorming the framework of my business, I knew I needed a strong foundation. My experience as a former assistant professor on the tenure track gave me insights on the daily struggles of social science and humanities scholars. But I knew I needed more. I wanted to further explore psychology, coaching, self-efficacy, motivation, and mindset to address the barriers to public engagement and research communication.
Then I discovered the science communication discipline, and it opened up a whole new world. There was so much to learn! For about a year, I approached it like the “old school” PhD-trained researcher I am – reading papers from start to finish, taking meticulous notes (and sometimes still including the APA citation – old habits die hard). It was thorough but time-consuming and inefficient, especially for an independent scholar building a research-based business. This was until I learned how to integrate AI for independent scholars.
Leveraging AI as an Independent Scholar
The turning point came while living in Mexico City, surrounded by enterprising entrepreneurs who openly shared resources and insights. And AI is all the rage in the entrepreneurial streets. I learned so much about AI’s potential through casual conversations and talks. I learned how I could integrate AI as an independent scholar into my business, content creation, and research.
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My AI journey started where many did – with ChatGPT and Gemini. Like everyone else, I experimented with GPT for social media posts, article summaries, and editing. I tried Gemini for its web connectivity and language capabilities (I preferred its writing style over GPT which always overdid the emojis). But when it came to research, the process was clunky. I would manually copy and paste PDFs into chatbots – not a sustainable approach for how much research I was reviewing.
Then came Claude, a game-changer in the realm of AI for independent scholars. Its document upload capability revolutionized my research process. Seriously, I have not been the same since I met Claude. Now I could upload entire manuscripts and get viable summaries within seconds.
But the real breakthrough came when I learned to ask more specific questions. Sometimes I do ask for simple summaries of the research (to get an understanding of the paper), And sometimes I ask targeted questions about specific aspects of the research. For example, when researching executive coaching, I’d ask for summaries focused on benefits and outcomes and the citations, which provided both immediate insights and directions for further research. I upgraded Claude to the professional plan over the summer when I kept running into usage limitations, and have not turned back since.
AI as my Thought Partner
As an entrepreneur and independent scholar, writing is central to everything I do – but the process needs to be efficient. I’ve always found it natural to write stream-of-consciousness, either freehand or through dictation. In fact, I encourage my clients to speak their thoughts aloud to clarify their ideas. (Practice what you preach)
And even though I am not in academia, it doesn’t mean that time isn’t still a precious commodity. It might be more so for me because time is money. So I use it multiple times weekly to summarize and investigate research. For instance, when preparing my Fulbright and British Academy fellowship applications, I needed to review so much literature within a short time frame so I could develop robust and relevant research projects. And here is where AI for independent scholars is invaluable. It summarized the work while I was able to identify my place in the literature through the project development. It saved me hours, which allowed me to run my business and work with clients simultaneously.
Related Post: Life After Academia: Exploring International Fellowships for Independent Scholars
How I Use AI as an Independent Scholar
So instead of spending hours reading literature start to finish, reorganizing 20-sentence paragraphs, or wrestling with structure and headings, I’ve developed a streamlined process using AI as an independent scholar:
- Draft Development: I upload my rough drafts to Claude, often stream-of-consciousness pieces or dictated thoughts. The key is getting ideas out and on paper without self-editing.
- Structure and Organization: First request: organizational structure and headings. This gives me a clear framework while maintaining my core ideas.
- Refinement with Voice Preservation: Then I ask for refinement while keeping my voice intact. This isn’t rewriting – it’s polishing efficiently.
- Line-by-line Review: I review the Claude output against my original submission (section by section) to confirm, adjust, rewrite, and edit the copy.
- Train the AI: Once I finalize whatever post or writing project I am working on, I feed it back into Claude to train it in my style of writing and tone.
Having AI as a writing partner helps combat the isolation of entrepreneurship. It’s like having a reliable colleague available 24/7 to bounce ideas off of. But let me be clear: AI is my thought partner, not my ghostwriter. Sure, it helps with the occasional social media post, but I’m not outsourcing my thinking.
I provide the ideas, rough drafts, and conceptual frameworks for blog posts. AI helps refine and polish, making my work more efficient without compromising its authenticity as an independent scholar, entrepreneur, and content creator. Every single blog post was born from my brain, and refined with my trusty editor and thought partner.
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Managing the Limitations of AI as an Independent Scholar
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – AI is far from perfect. A lesson I’ve learned the hard way. Chatbots can just make up information out of nowhere (a phenomenon called AI hallucination), presenting made-up responses with surprising confidence. Sometimes it refers to me as “Angela” despite my name being on the (paid) account! But the hallucination is particularly tricky when you’re building a research-based business and your reputation depends on accuracy.
Ai for independent scholars requires a few more steps to ensure accuracy:
Maintain Research Standards
- Always cross-reference sources and data
- Double-check citations and quotations
- Trust your scholarly instincts – if something seems off, investigate
- Treat AI-generated content as a first draft requiring verification
- Ask AI to point to specific sections or page numbers for verification
Write Better Prompts
- Be specific with your requests
- Break complex questions into smaller, focused queries
AI is like a brilliant but occasionally overconfident research assistant. It can process information quickly and make interesting connections, but as an independent scholar, you’re responsible for the final product’s accuracy and integrity.
The Power of AI for Independent Scholars
While some may still resist AI (as I initially did), it has transformed how I apply research to my business practices. Independent scholars are in a unique position – we crave maintaining academic rigor while operating outside traditional institutional support systems. AI helps bridge this gap.
Here’s why I advocate the use of AI for independent scholars:
- It democratizes access to research understanding
- Enables efficient processing of academic literature
- Supports independent scholars in maintaining research-informed practices
- Helps balance academic work with business operations
Instead of viewing AI with skepticism, we should embrace it as a tool that makes independent scholarship more sustainable. Not everyone has the luxury of spending hours with 30-page academic papers, but that shouldn’t prevent us from engaging with research meaningfully.
We should also encourage graduate students and early career academics to use AI in their research workflow. Why spend hours trying to process a paper when you can spend a few moments trying to get to the bottom of your research question? This is especially significant for those doing interdisciplinary research.
Want to talk more about how to use AI in your research workflow? Book a free strategy session today!
