There is a growing and increasingly diverse body of theory and research exploring chilling effects. In the past, this research has been assumed, without argument, to be simply an area of work subsumed within broader disciplines or fields like law or privacy theory. In this chapter, I argue that chilling effects theory and research should be recognized as an independent field of study, with its own identity and questions. The chapter provides an overview of literature on the requirements for fields of study and disciplines; extrapolates criteria for recognition; and applies them to chilling effects research. In doing so, it finds that chilling effects research has all the requirements of a field of study: a clear research object and groups of scholars pursuing collectively; a body of generally accepted knowledge, theory, and methodologies that have advanced over time; and indicators of ongoing research efforts. Along the way, the chapter also provides a brief outline of the history and evolution of chilling effects theory and methodology over three different eras from the Post War Period to the present.