No! Anyone can submit a paper to a journal and get it published. The journal and other academics don’t care about the degrees you have, they only care if the paper is good science. The only situations when you will need requirements are for things like ethics and multiple authors. E.g:

• Ethics approval. This will need to be from a recognised an ethics board. E.g. you need ethics approval to interview people or access private information. Don’t worry if you don’t work at a university, there are plenty of public ethics boards. They also help improve your methodology!
• Multiple authors. Some scientific approaches require more than one author. Such as a systematic literature review.
• Vulnerable/protected groups. If you are dealing with vulnerable groups there will be extra requirements to follow. E.g. if you want to study the indigenous Australian demographic (Aboriginals), you need special ethical clearance and an indigenous academic on your team. This could also include:
  • Indigenous groups.
  • Children.
  • Disabilities.
  • Health information.
  • Some forms of intellectual property.

Hints:

• You can always contact ethics approval committees for guidance. E.g. “Hi ethics board, do I need ethics approval for this?”
• If you are new to the publication process, search for similar methodology papers and copy the methods. It’s not plagiarism to copy an interview method (Not word for word but it’s always the same!). This will also help you identify the level of quality is expected in a paper.