{"id":38074,"date":"2017-03-06T01:54:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T09:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38074"},"modified":"2017-03-06T01:54:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T09:54:14","slug":"researcher-someone-elses-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/","title":{"rendered":"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"research-fellowship\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I completed my PhD after a pretty substantial professional career. Then,\u00a0I went into an academic job and\u00a0jumped straight into my own\u00a0small research projects. Now, somewhat later, \u00a0I direct\u00a0larger and longer research projects, often with a colleague and a small research team. This team almost always\u00a0includes a new PhD, an early career researcher \u2013 and their job as\u00a0research\u00a0\u2018fellow\u2019 is often a crucial toehold on the academic ladder.<\/p>\n

This kind of \u2018mixed\u2019 research team is common-place.\u00a0If they are not a \u2018teaching only academic\u2019, many newly minted PhDs find themselves working as researchers for other people. They may even work as a part-time researcher on several research projects at once, all run by different PIs.<\/p>\n

This is a tricky situation. Having done their own independent piece of research, supported by a supervisor, they then find themselves generating most of the data on some-else\u2019s project, doing first-cut analysis and drafting texts, working to someone else\u2019s research design and some-one else\u2019s research practices. It\u2019s as if they \u2018d had L plates on for a long time, briefly took them off and then had to put them right back on again.<\/p>\n

Moving from PhD to research fellow is an\u00a0identity shift, and not always an\u00a0entirely easy or welcome one. From \u00a0assuming the identity of expert researcher (necessary to get through the viva\/defence), the Dr. then suddenly finds themselves unable to pursue\u00a0their own agenda. Their capacity to assume the identity and practices of a fully fledged researcher are abruptly curtailed.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0issues about being a \u2018research fellow\u2019 don\u2019t stop there. The project the Dr. is working on may be high stakes and subject to a range of political and contractual issues that are unfamiliar,\u00a0and also not always logical. Busy PIs may assume that the Dr. knows much more about these things that they have had the opportunity to learn, and may only do the required explanations at the point of decision-making. They may also assume that the researcher will automatically make the same kinds of decisions that they do. In\u00a0these situations the researcher is expected to act as an\u00a0extension of the PI in ways that they may not find comfortable, or even acceptable.<\/p>\n

And there are significant ethical and practical problems associated with being a researcher on someone else\u2019s project. Co-writing. Credit for authoring. \u00a0Attending and presenting at \u00a0conferences. But there are other more granular issues too, often related to boundaries\u00a0\u2013 what can the researcher decide and what do they have to refer to the PI? And of course the VERY big one \u2013 how can a \u2018research fellow\u2019 position play out into a real permanent job?<\/p>\n

When I look at the kinds of career advice and support offered by universities \u2013 and online \u2013 to PhDs and to ECRs, I see a lot of \u2018stuff\u2019 about\u00a0\u2018employability\u2019 and an increasing emphasis on discussion about knowledge work undertaken in places other than universities, including self-employment and entrepreneurial activities. Some of this is helpful, some not so much. I also see some support for orienting new researchers to teaching, although scarcely\u00a0enough.<\/p>\n

I see very little discussion about being a researcher on other people\u2019s projects. There doesn\u2019t seem to be a lot of ongoing support for people who are working as jobbing researchers \u2013 there is some of course, and some institutions do much better at this than others. But\u00a0I can\u2019t see a lot of research into the ways in which this avenue of academic identity formation, choice-making and academic career building, including promotion, actually happens. And if ever there was an area ripe for concerted academic self-help online then this is it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I\u2019ve missed all the discussion. I found some scattered bits and pieces when I searched. But perhaps I\u2019m right \u2013 being someone else\u2019s researcher is still something that isn\u2019t talked about enough. That\u2019s surprising\/distressing\/alarming at a time when large numbers of new Dr.s find themselves working on other people\u2019s projects \u2013 often for a very long time indeed.<\/p>\n

Perhaps some of you Dr. researchers working on other people\u2019s projects would secretly like to contribute some constructive posts about the key issues and strategies for managing and getting on \u2026? I can\u2019t really write them myself as I\u2019m neither in this position nor have I ever been. But\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I completed my PhD after a pretty substantial professional career. Then,\u00a0I went into an academic job and\u00a0jumped straight into my own\u00a0small research projects. Now, somewhat later, \u00a0I direct\u00a0larger and longer research projects, often with a colleague and a small research team. This team almost always\u00a0includes a new PhD, an early career researcher \u2013 and their […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":38075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[65884],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-38074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-research-fellow"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA researcher on someone else\u2019s project? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I completed my PhD after a pretty substantial professional career. Then,\u00a0I went into an academic job and\u00a0jumped straight into my own\u00a0small research projects. Now, somewhat later, \u00a0I direct\u00a0larger and longer research projects, often with a colleague and a small research team. This team almost always\u00a0includes a new PhD, an early career researcher \u2013 and their […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-06T09:54:14+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/research-fellowship.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"322\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-06T09:54:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":738,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/research-fellowship.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"research fellow\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/\",\"name\":\"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project? - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/research-fellowship.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-06T09:54:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/research-fellowship.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/research-fellowship.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":322},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/researcher-someone-elses-project\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project? - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project? - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"I completed my PhD after a pretty substantial professional career. Then,\u00a0I went into an academic job and\u00a0jumped straight into my own\u00a0small research projects. Now, somewhat later, \u00a0I direct\u00a0larger and longer research projects, often with a colleague and a small research team. This team almost always\u00a0includes a new PhD, an early career researcher \u2013 and their […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-03-06T09:54:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":322,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/research-fellowship.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project?","datePublished":"2017-03-06T09:54:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/"},"wordCount":738,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/research-fellowship.jpeg","keywords":["research fellow"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/","name":"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project? - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/research-fellowship.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-03-06T09:54:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/research-fellowship.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/research-fellowship.jpeg","width":680,"height":322},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/researcher-someone-elses-project\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A researcher on someone else\u2019s project?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38074"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=38074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}