Help us to reimagine research! Help us to drive the needed change in research culture that we all desire!
1. Sept. 2021
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Thousands of researchers have taken part in the largest ever survey into experiences of research culture. The results published on 15 January 2020 show that it's time for change – everyone in the research community can help to reimagine research! And so, can you! Alliance4Life and CEITEC are bringing you an anonymous survey on research culture to drive positive change and to set up ideal conditions for research and innovation!
The research sector is widely seen as producing great work, but there are concerns about the culture that has developer to support this. Are policies, incentives and assessment processes, leadership approaches or other factors undermining research? To investigate researchers’ experiences of research culture and their visions for the future, Wellcome (a global charitable foundation with the aim to increase everyone´s benefit from science’s potential to improve health and save lives) commissioned specialist market research agency Shift Learning to undertake a study on research culture. This began with a literature review, followed by 94 qualitative interviews, four workshops and a quantitative online survey of over 4,000 researchers. The aim was to generate a rigorous foundation of data from which to better understand the current culture and target interventions at problems. The picture is not uniform, but there are many common themes. Researchers are passionate about their work and proud to be part of the research community – they see it as a vocation, not just a job. Culture varies a great deal from place to place, and different individuals have very different experiences, with underrepresented groups experiencing the most challenges.
Researchers say that their working culture is best when it is collaborative, inclusive, supportive and creative, when researchers are given time to focus on their research priorities, when leadership is transparent and open, and when individuals have a sense of safety and security. But too often research culture is not at its best.
While most researchers feel that their sector is producing high-quality outputs, they also report deep concerns about how sustainable the culture is in the long term. They say that conditions are being worsened by a complex network of incentives from government, funders and institutions that seem to focus on quantity of outputs, and narrow concepts of ‘impact’, rather than on real quality. The upshot is that they feel intense pressure to publish, with too little value placed on how results are achieved and the human costs. They accept competition as a necessary part of working in research, but think that it is often becoming aggressive and harmful. They also have widespread concerns about job security – especially in academia. While many researchers enjoy and feel equipped to manage their teams, those being managed are often missing out on the critical aspects of good management such as feedback. And worse, many have experienced exploitation, discrimination, harassment and bullying.
These cultural problems have consequences. Concerns about these fall into three categories: the impact on researchers, the impact on research and the impact on society.
For researchers, poor research culture is leading to stress, anxiety, mental health problems, strain on personal relationships, and a sense of isolation and loneliness at work. For research, the perceived impacts include a loss of quality, with corners being cut and outputs becoming increasingly superficial, problems with reproducibility, and the cherry-picking of results and data massaging. For society, the dangers are seen as loss of talent from the sector and a reduction of real innovation and impact resulting from a narrow set of priorities, as well as a loss of trust from the public.
The findings in this report provide clear evidence that there are widespread problems in research culture. Those who fund, publish, evaluate or conduct research can now use this evidence as a starting-point to implement solutions in their own communities and working groups. Achieving a successful research culture will require collective responsibility and change at all levels. The surey participants said that research culture is best when it is creative, supportive and collaborative – and in making cultural change, these three qualities will be key as well.
Although the survey was open worldwide, 76% of the respondents were from the UK. Now we have a unique chance to examine the research culture at our research institute, our university, and in our region! The template for this Alliance4Life questionnaire has been inspired by the Welcome Trust survey on institutional culture from 2019. A pilot anonymous survey was already performed at one of the partner institutes of Alliance4Life, at BMC SAS in Slovakia, in November 2020, and provided important cues for better understanding of institutional environment and for its further cultivation.
Become a part of a needed change and participate in our anonymous online survey on research culture! The more researchers will participate, the better foundation for change we achieve!
FILL OUT THE SURVEY HERE.
Source: Wellcome Trust Report: What researchers think about the culture they work in
