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I cannot attend any western university right now. I can relocate in future.

But I already have article which will soon go into publishing process. So affiliation could be useful right now.

I do not like idea of publishing without affiliation or with affiliation to institution which do not work within my field (molecular dynamics).

I don't like idea of putting affiliation with institution which does not pay for my job.

Where and how I can get affiliation for myself? Should I ask for affiliation directly? What if I can possibly work for that institution in future?

PS. I attended to many universities. Article I have was made while I attended to small one building institution (csu.ru). Institution did not pay for article nor I have any grants. Only payment I received was for teaching junior classes 2 years ago.

PS2. Ethically I should put ALL contribution to my work. But I didn't use laboratories, nor computer power, nor payment for last 6 months. The main expenses were computing equipment for about $2000 which I bought with money from my teaching. I was enlisted for some grants, but I already did my "payment" for this with other article, so everybody is with good relations to me.

PS3. My previous affiliated institution is not involved for 6 months already, during this time I did my work. No, I don't intend to slap my previous institution, but I am looking for new one.

Should I just email people from other institutions with collaboration proposals and publish under their institution?

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  • Do you have any academic affiliation at all right now? – jakebeal Jul 22 '15 at 21:59
  • What do you mean by saying you "attended to" the university? It doesn't make grammatical sense in English. Were you a student at the university, or an employee? – Nate Eldredge Jul 22 '15 at 22:42
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    I don't understand your edit. When you collaborate with someone, you don't adopt their affiliation. – ff524 Jul 23 '15 at 0:00
  • I don't see a big problem with publishing some papers, especially early in academic career, as an independent researcher (that is how I classify myself at this time, BTW). Having an affiliation or not having one doesn't really affect your publication portfolio. If you're concerned about potentially smaller chances for your papers of being accepted, I wouldn't worry about that too much. The main thing is to produce a quality research - if it will be there, I believe that reviewers and editors will have no problem with recommending, accepting and publishing your papers. Just my two cents. – Aleksandr Blekh Jul 23 '15 at 1:23
  • Do you have any degrees? How have you been "affiliated" in the past? – jakebeal Jul 23 '15 at 11:33
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Nate answered the issue about your previous affiliation.

Where and how I can get affiliation for myself? Should I ask for affiliation directly? What if I can possibly work for that institution in future?

About obtaining affiliations. Many universities have a category of "visiting researcher" for scholars who are neither employees or students but would still like to use the university resources such as the library or collaborate within a lab for a short while. The VR status may allow for a research visa depending on the institution.

These are usually term limited and the university may have a registration/administrative fee. You'd normally apply by finding a PI within a department that would be your university sponsor for the VR status. "Sponsor" does not imply any financial obligation to you, many VRs have to pay their own way.

There may be either an explicit or implicit expectation that you will be in residence for at least part of the term of VR. There is, however, no expectation that you will teach, mentor, or do any administrative duties. At some universities, VRs are not given any office space and it is up to their sponsor to find work space if needed out of their own allocation.

VRs can lead to being hired but this would not be the norm or the expectation. You are just "visiting" after all.

That being said, it sounds like you would not accept this status as you said, "I don't like idea of putting affiliation with institution which does not pay for my job."

If you won't accept unrenumerated affiliation, the only option left for you is to get a paying job at said institutions.

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  • Good, at least it is some official status unlike my current position. – sanaris Jul 23 '15 at 0:36
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    Don't visiting researchers usually go to the institution they're visiting? OP said he/she is not willing to relocate right now. – ff524 Jul 23 '15 at 0:58
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Affiliation isn't a commodity to buy and sell. It is simply a statement that at the time of researching and writing this article, you were affiliated (as a student, employee, or similar) with a particular organization.

From your question, it sounds like at the time of researching and writing the article, you were a student or employee of Chelyabinsk State University, so standard practice would simply be to list your affiliation as "Chelyabinsk State University". If you are not enrolled or employed there any more, then list a "current address" stating how to contact you.

Ethically, if you feel that CSU contributed nothing to the work, and you did it on your "own time", then you could omit it; in which case, you would list no affiliation at all. But this would likely be perceived as a petty insult to CSU, to the extent that anyone noticed it at all.

Affiliation should be determined only on the basis of what you were doing while you prepared the article. Anything that happened after the fact is irrelevant. You can't "get" a different affiliation for a paper you have already written.

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  • It Is commodity, because people will look into "what institution did this and that". Musicians are getting paid when they attend some place. – sanaris Sep 25 '16 at 20:45
  • I wonder why this question got so upvoted, and I explain. (i) It doesn't "sound like at the time of etc"; s/he explicitly writes the opposite. (ii) Affiliation is important to some people and journals, maybe a formality, but the OP is well justified in asking. (iii) Your wording sounds deliberately insulting. – Helen Apr 20 '17 at 14:15
  • @Helen: (i) "Article I have was made while I attended to small one building institution (csu.ru)". OP says a "previous affiliated institution" was not involved; I read that as referring to a different institution that OP attended before CSU. (ii)-(iii) I will tone down some of the wording, but I do wish to emphasize that whatever importance affiliation may have to anyone, it is not appropriate to "game" it. – Nate Eldredge Apr 20 '17 at 14:46
  • (i) S/he says that "my previous affiliated institution is not involved for 6 months already, during this time I did my work". I agree totally about not gaming it, but I think the OP honestly tried to grasp the situation. (Hopefully useful as reference for future cases, at least.) – Helen Apr 25 '17 at 16:37

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