The impact of the pandemic on early career researchers' work‐life and scholarly communications: A quantitative aerial analysis

Abstract

After two‐years of repeat interviewing early career sciences/social sciences researchers from around the world about their work life and scholarly communications in pandemic‐times, the Harbingers‐2 project is in a position to release quantitative data on the pandemic's overall impact. The data comes from around 50 questions asked in the third and final round of interviews with 147 early career researchers (ECRs), which had a codifiable element to them (such as yes, no, do not know). The 19 scholarly topics covered include: pandemic‐related research; research funding; changes to the workplace/working from home; pandemic‐incurred stress and anxiety; teaching; employment security; career progression; mentoring; assessment (including metrics); collaboration; searching/finding information; ethics; networking; informal communication; publishing; sharing; pre‐prints; outreach; and scholarly transformations. The main findings are that in six broad aspects of ECRs' work‐life and scholarly behaviour, more than 50% of ECRs were impacted by the pandemic, with remote teaching having the greatest impact. By way of comparison, in another six aspects there was little change, least of all when it came to sharing activities. Among the countries studied, Malaysia stood out as being the most impacted, and of the disciplines it was the medical sciences and the soft social sciences most impacted.

Disrupciones y Herencia de la Pandemia en la Comunicación Científica de los Investigadores Noveles Españoles

“…De hecho, los datos obtenidos en tres rondas de entrevistas en profundidad, realizadas durante dos años a alrededor de 170 ECRs de ciencias y ciencias sociales de 8 países, convergen para formar una descripción multifacética de los efectos de la pandemia en las actitudes y prácticas de comunicación académica y vida laboral de los académicos noveles. Los hallazgos se han comunicado en artículos que analizan los datos de los ocho países participantes (Clark et al, 2024;Jamali et al, 2023;Nicholas et al, 2022a;2022b;2022c;2023a;2023b;2023c;2023d;2023e;2023f).…”

Addressing the Pervasive Issue of Predatory Journals and Conferences: An Indian Researcher's Perspective

“… 7 Publishing in predatory journals affects scientists from both high (the USA, France, Spain) and low/middle income countries (India, Iran, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia). 6 – 9 The insidious prevalence of predatory journals and conferences poses a formidable challenge to the academic community. However, through collective awareness, vigilance, and collaboration, we can fortify the walls of academic integrity and ensure that the pursuit of knowledge remains undiminished by deceitful practices.…”