# I am an Independent Researcher, how do I sign up?

We've received many emails from concerned researchers who want to sign up quickly but aren't affiliated with an academic institution.&#x20;

If you are not affiliated with an academic institution, but are employed at a company, you can use that domain and position information to sign up.

If you do not have a company domain, you can use a personal email. All personal emails will be moderated - see [Expediting Profile Activation](/getting-started/creating-an-openreview-profile/expediting-profile-activation.md) for additional tips on how to make sure your profile is activated as quickly as possible. &#x20;

When filling out the profile details for registration, there is a section that will ask for your Education and Career History, which will require a current position. For the role you can type “Independent Researcher” and set that as your current position and type in a domain.  See the page [Entering Institutional Data](/getting-started/creating-an-openreview-profile/entering-institutional-data.md) for an example of how to fill out institutional information as an independent researcher. Please include as much of your background as possible. If the "Education and Career History" section only lists "Independent Researcher" we will ask you to add another institution record when your profile is rejected.

Please do not use an old role or affiliation as your current position, as that may delay moderation.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.openreview.net/getting-started/frequently-asked-questions/i-am-an-independent-researcher-how-do-i-sign-up.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
