Effects of pandemic-related disruptions on academic careers

该项目的目的是确定与流行病有关的研究中断对研究人员职业生涯的影响。该项目利用了这样一个事实，即与流行病有关的中断构成了行动条件改变的极端情况（“准实验”），因为它们几乎同时中断了科学界的大多数研究和交流实践。因此，研究这些中断的影响将有助于更深入地了解个人知识生产条件的复杂系统以及知识生产与学术生涯之间的关系。该项目的实证策略基于学术生涯的比较案例研究，其中案例在四个维度上不同，即研究领域的特征，中断的位置相对于研究过程中的事件序列，职业生涯阶段和合同情况，以及性别。将采用三阶段研究设计。第一步，将与教授进行简短的访谈，以确定他们在前两个比较方面的工作情况。这些简短的访谈将为半结构化研究传记访谈的案例选择提供信息，这些访谈将构成研究项目的核心。研究传记访谈将重建受访者的研究实践之间的联系，他们暴露于流行病相关的中断，以及他们的职业生涯的直接和预期后果。研究传记访谈将分两波进行。第一波将于2021年第三季度开始，以尽快评估疫情相关中断的直接后果。受访者将被要求参加下一年的后续访谈。第二波访谈仍然只能涵盖与流行病有关的中断的短期后果。但是，它还将提供关于以下方面的初步信息：大流行中断引发的专题变化的持久性;恢复被大流行相关中断破坏的研究条件的工作的必要性、持续时间和后果;以及职业生涯的变化，如职业中断、退出研究或失业。

The aim of this project is to ascertain the impact of pandemic-related disruptions of research on the careers of researchers. The project takes advantage of the fact that pandemic-related disruptions constitute an extreme case of changed conditions of action (a 'quasi-experiment'), as they near-simultaneously disrupted most research and communication practices of scientific communities. Studying the effects of these disruptions will therefore contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex system of conditions for individual knowledge production and of the relationship between knowledge production and academic careers.The empirical strategy of the project is based on comparative case studies of academic careers in which the cases are varied in four dimensions, namely characteristics of research fields, the position of interruptions relative to the sequences of events in research processes, career stage and contractual situation, and gender. A three-stage research design will be applied. In a first step, short interviews with professors will be conducted to ascertain the situation of their work with regard to the first two comparative dimensions. These short interviews will inform the selection of cases for the semi-structured research-biographical interviews that will form the core of the research project. The research-biographical interviews will reconstruct the connection between the interviewees’ research practices, their exposure to pandemic-related disruptions, and immediate and expected consequences for their careers. The research-biographical interviews will be conducted in two waves. The first wave will start in the third quarter of 2021 to assess the immediate consequences of the pandemic-related disruptions as soon as possible. Interviewees will be asked to participate in a follow-up interview the following year. The second wave of interviews can still only cover short-term consequences of pandemic-related disruptions. However, it will additionally provide preliminary information on the permanence of thematic changes triggered by pandemic interruptions, on the necessity, duration and consequences of work to restore research conditions destroyed by pandemic-related disruptions, and on changes in careers such as career breaks, exits from research, or unemployment.