You are being invited to take part in this research study because we believe you are a post-doc researcher at a major U.S. research institution.
We are a team of social scientists who are particularly interested in understanding idea discovery and development in science.
The first objective is to document the frictions that affect scientific progress in the academic research workforce. The primary research questions are to explore the current status of how researchers make progress in science labs that employ post-doctoral students and to document frictions related to scientific idea development and progress.
After enrolling in the study, you will participate in 10 interviews and surveys every 2 months. All interviews or surveys will take one hour or less to complete and you will be compensated with $50 for each interview or survey completed. After approximately 2 months from enrollment, a subset of participants will be invited to apply to participate in the managerial training program that will take place locally. Further details on this program can be found below.
You will be compensated at the rate of $50 for each interview you complete in the form of visa gift cards.
To protect your confidentiality, access to response data will be restricted to members of the research team with approved data security protocols in place, and identifiable data will only be stored as approved by our institution. Efforts will be made to limit the use and disclosure of your personal information to people who have a need to review this information. We cannot promise complete secrecy. Organizations that may inspect and copy your information include the Institutional Review Board and other representatives of this organization. If identifiers are removed from your private information, that information could be used for future research studies or distributed to another investigator for future research studies without your additional informed consent. We may link your responses to external publication records. All data will be de-identified and remain anonymous.
You will do 10 interviews approximately every 2 months for the duration of the study.
Interviews will take place approximately every 2 months from the start of the study for two years. Our interview team will work with you to find times that work in your schedule to interview you. We are flexible!
Approximately two years.
You are still eligible to participate in the study even if you are not a post-doc for the full duration of the study and if you are not planning to stay in academia. However, you do need to be a post-doc that will be remaining in your current lab at your current institution at least through the Fall 2024 - Winter 2025 academic year to be eligible.
Yes! If you are a post-doc, you are eligible to be in our study!
Whether or not you take part is up to you. Your participation is completely voluntary. You can choose not to take part. You can agree to take part and later change your mind. Your decision will not be held against you. Your refusal to participate will not result in any consequences or any loss of benefits that you are otherwise entitled to receive.
You can leave the study at any time; it will not be held against you.
A possible risk for any research is that confidentiality could be compromised – that is, that people outside the study might obtain confidential study information. We will do everything we can to minimize this risk, as described in more detail on our consent form for our study.
We cannot promise any benefits to you or others from your taking part in this research. However, possible benefits to you or others include the fact that our results will be useful to policymakers and administrators who design science policies and the rules that govern research institutions.