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2.10 Independent Research

Independent research gives students the opportunity to work closely with a professor on a topic of mutual interest, usually with the goal of the student producing a major or substantial research paper. Independent research may be supervised by a member of the tenured or tenure track faculty at the Law School, or Visiting Faculty, Emeriti, or faculty members holding the title of Clinical Professor of Law, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Professors from Practice, or Senior Lecturers at the Law School, and tenured University of Chicago faculty with permanent offices at the Law School (but excluding Bigelow and other Fellows and Lecturers in Law) who are in full-time residence at the Law School. Visiting Faculty may supervise independent research if they are willing and available to work with students until the independent research is completed, which in many cases will be after their visit has ended. Students who would like to work with a Lecturer in Law on an independent research project must submit a petition to the Rules and Petitions Committee (via the Dean of Students) for advance permission to do so. Students may not enroll in independent research as a replacement for missed work or time in another law school class. Independent research may not be used to make up academic work or instructional time for another class.

The Independent Research must be in the nature of academic research and writing, even if it is not a complete, free-standing academic paper. The Independent Research must be supervised directly the faculty member who will approve credit for the Independent Research. The credits awarded must be proportional to the extent of the research and writing done per quarter. For example, a few short reaction papers as part of a reading group in on a book could be appropriate for one credit in a quarter, but not for three. Only a complete, free-standing academic paper can qualify for SRP credit. The Independent Research must be the student’s own work, not co-authored with anyone. This does not prevent the Independent Research Project, after it is completed and graded, from being incorporated into a co-authored work with the faculty member or someone else.

No credit is given for RA work, and students cannot be paid for anything they do for credit. The number of credits must meet the guidelines in the Faculty and Student Handbooks, keeping in mind the injunction above that no credit can be given for anything done as RA work.

Work that builds on, extends, or relates to papers written for another class is not per se prohibited, but the independent research credit can only be given for research and writing that is new substance. There must be new ideas and new content. In other words, if the proposed independent research is merely taking a complete draft and revising and polishing it, this project would not qualify as independent research. If the proposal adds new research questions, data analysis, or arguments and thereby generating significant new written content, it is more likely to qualify as independent research.

Please note that independent research projects default to three credit hours. Any modification of the credit value requires the written consent of the supervising faculty member. Additionally, students only may take four independent research credits with the same professor and are limited to six independent research credits total during their time at the Law School.[1]

Steps to register for an independent research:

  1. Discuss the project with the faculty member;
  2. Obtain the faculty member’s written consent to supervise the project via their signature on a properly completed Independent Research Petition (available online at http://www.law.uchicago.edu/students/petitions/independentresearch); and
  3. Submit the form to the Office of the Registrar by the deadline listed in the academic calendar each quarter

Some students use the independent research as an opportunity to attempt to “write-on” to a journal. A student may receive academic credit for a journal submission only if it meets these criteria:

  • The work must be entirely original, new, and written independently by the student.
  • If the student has submitted a Topic Proposal to the journal to determine whether the journal is interested in the topic, the student may not receive any research or editorial assistance from journal staff members while the project is in process without prior approval of the faculty member who will be evaluating the paper. For more details please see Section 6.1.
  • Students may work only with the faculty member during the research and writing stage.
  • The paper may be submitted to the journal only after it has been accepted for credit by a faculty member.

Please refer to Section 6.1 for a more detailed description of the process of writing onto a journal and the pros and cons of using independent research to “write on.”

[1] J.D./Ph.D students should discuss this limitation with the Dean of Students.