Doing research and getting it published requires you to show how you have built-upon the work of researchers who came before you. In order to get to that point

Doing research and getting it published requires you to show how you have built-upon the work of researchers who came before you. In order to get to that point you have to read and understand a huge body of work. Much of that material is behind paywalls which are expensive to access unless you are enrolled as a research student at a university that subscribes to those journals. As a minimum you would need access to ACM, IEEE and Springer-Verlang conference papers and journals. People without the depth of knowledge often "re-discover" stuff that has been documented a decade or so ago. So if you were to submit such material to any respected journal it will be rejected during the peer review. As for calling yourself an academic, you would need to be part of some academic institution in order to do that. Passing exams as an undergraduate is the first of many hurdles.