Suchergebnisse

Conducting research that is emotionally demanding can negatively impact the health and wellbeing of researchers if adequate planning and support is not in place. Institutions are rigorous in their requirement for research proposals to consider physical health and safety risks to participants and researchers, and emotional risks to participants. There is less requirement for proposals to consider how the research might be emotionally demanding for those conducting it, and how this might affect them. Researchers in social and public health science at University of Glasgow identified a local need for a more consistent approach to considering emotional impact on researchers when planning, conducting, and disseminating research, and developed guidance addressing this need. This paper shares the process of, and findings from, staff consultation carried out in advance of writing guidance on 'Facilitating and Supporting Emotionally Demanding Research', the recommendations made within this guidance, and steps the authors have taken since then to develop a peer support network in Scotland.

Abstract: Funding agencies and universities are increasingly searching for effec-tive ways to support and strengthen a dynamic and competitive scientific research capacity. Many of their funding policies are based on the hypothesis that increased collaboration and networking between researchers and between institutions lead to improved scientific productivity. Although many studies have found positive correlations between academic collaborations and research performance, it is less clear how formal institutional networks contribute to this effect. Using social net-work analysis (SNA) methods, we highlight the distinction between what we define as "formal" institutional research networks and "organic" researcher networks. We also analyze the association between researchers' actual structural position in such networks and their scientific performance. The data used come from cur-riculum vitae information of 125 researchers in two provincially funded research networks in Quebec, Canada. Our findings confirm a positive correlation between collaborations and research productivity. We also demonstrate that collaborations within the formal networks in our study constitute a relatively small component of the underlying organic network of collaborations. These findings contribute to the literature on evaluating policies and programs that pertain to institutional research networks and should stimulate research on the capacity of such networks to foster research productivity.Résumé : Les universités et les agences de financement cherchent de plus en plus à renforcer de façon efficace une capacité de recherche scientifique dynamique et concurrentielle. Bon nombre de leurs politiques de financement sont fondées sur l'hypothèse qu'une amélioration de la collaboration et du réseautage entre les chercheurs et entre les établissements mène à une productivité scientifique accrue. De nombreuses études ont noté une corrélation positive entre les collaborations de recherche et le rendement en recherche, mais la contribution des réseaux institution-nels officiels à ce résultat reste nébuleuse. À l'aide de méthodes d'analyse des réseaux sociaux, nous mettons l'accent sur la distinction entre ce que nous définissons comme les réseaux institutionnels de recherche « officiels » et les réseaux « organiques » de chercheurs. Nous analysons aussi l'association entre les positions structurelles réelles