In an attempt to figure out what the core aspects of research practice training are, versus the domain specific ones, I had a think and wrote a series of user stories to try to tease out commonalities. These are not accurate or complete, but I’m hoping they’ll be a good start for conversation. The key question for each user story is:
What does this researcher need to know to do
their research effectively, ethically, transparently and verifiably?
The assumption is that everyone already has their funding
sorted.
Researcher in particle
physics needs to know:
- How to access the data they need to use
- How to manage the data
- How to visualise and analyse the data (Scientific computing, high performance computing)
- The background and metadata of the data collection process
- The current state of the art in their field
- How to communicate their research results (conferences/publications)
- Health and safety for working with experimental machinery
- …?
Researcher in social sciences working with asylum seekers
- How to gain ethical approval for their work
- How to formulate their work so that it causes no harm
- How to manage and safely store their data, including dealing with the privacy and dignity of their contacts
- How to keep themselves and their contacts safe (physically and psychologically)
- How to communicate their research results (conferences/publications)
- How to influence policy and engage with non-academics as stakeholders
- How to deal with conscious and unconscious bias
- …?
Researcher in
AI-driven drug design
- How to access and understand the databases that feed into the system
- How to troubleshoot and understand the system outputs
- Health and safety in the lab
- Data and code management
- How to communicate their research results (conferences/publications)
- …?
Researcher in ancient
history
- How to access and cite primary sources
- Archive access and handling of fragile artefacts
- How to store and manage their data
- How to communicate their research results (conferences/publications)
- How to respect the artefact’s cultural background, bearing in mind it might have been taken from another culture during a period of colonialism
- The context around the artefact, and its past interpretations, bearing in mind historical biases
- …?
Researcher in clinical
trials
- Effective clinical good practice
- How to deal with conscious and unconscious bias
- Ethical approvals
- Double blind experimental design
- Human/animal experiment good practice
- How to communicate with trial participants/other non-academic stakeholders
- How to communicate their research results (conferences/publications)
- …?
Researcher in modern
arts
- How to access and use their resources
- How to manage and keep records of their observations/practices
- How to communicate their research results (conferences/publications/exhibitions)
- Stakeholder engagement
- Research ethics and integrity
- …?
Common topics
|
Stage of research |
Topics |
|
Beginning |
· Ethical approvals · Research integrity · Current state of the art in the field, including community standards · Safe working practices (physical and psychological health) |
|
Middle |
·Accessing, managing, analysing and using data/artefacts/physical resources |
|
End |
· Communicating research results (stakeholders, policy makers, general public) |
Unpicking those
topics a bit:
|
General |
Domain specific |
|
Research Integrity and ethics |
Current state of the art |
|
Data management |
Safe working practices |
|
Stakeholder management |
Workflow/practice recording |
|
Research misuse |
|
|
Peer review |
|
|
Results communication (journals, presentations) |
|
Note that safe working practices are mostly covered under the general health and safety training that everyone should go through when working for an employer, so even though there are some aspects that are very domain specific (radiation training, safeguarding, psychological safety), I haven't really included them in my further thinking about research practice.
When drawing the boundaries about what is research practice (i.e. what we're wanting to train people on to help them do better research) and what are techniques/tools/practices commonly done by researcher, I tend to think of them in terms of "is it something that only a researcher would do as part of their work?" It's always going to be a fuzzy boundary, and somewhat artificial, but we need to draw the line of scope somewhere. So that's why I'm not really thinking about health and safety, or project management, as core research practice topics, at this point in time anyway.
Random notes at the end:
- MRC’s Good Research Practice e-learning module is very good! https://byglearning.com/mrcrsc-lms/course/index.php?categoryid=15
- https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/researcher-toolbox/code-of-good-research-practice/
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