By Abigail Paterson. I recently completed the data collection for the first study in my PhD and when I did, I realised that this also signalled the end of my first study which asked participants about their self-harm behaviour. It was two big milestones for me in my PhD and before I begin data analysis… Continue reading Reflecting on asking about self-harm for the first time
By Jessica Leather Data collection through web-based organisations has become increasingly common in academic research, due to the promise of large sample sizes and lightning-fast data delivery. Companies such as Qualtrics, Amazon Mechanical Turk and YouGov provide researchers with the opportunity to purchase or ‘crowdsource’ participants for online surveys and cognitive tasks. Some offer in-depth… Continue reading Tips for collecting data through an external organisation
By Kirsten Russell. The 10th of September 2018 was World Suicide Prevention Day and marked a year since the official launch of the NetECR blog. The theme of this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day is “Working Together to Prevent Suicide”. This theme resonates with the ideology underpinning NetECR in that we believe that we are… Continue reading Working Together to Prevent Suicide: The Value of Getting to Know Your ECR Peers
By Donna Littlewood and Emma Nielsen. Over the past year ‘work/life balance’ and ‘self-care’ has been a regular feature on our Twitter timelines. Sometimes discussion is instigated in response to a blog from The Guardian’s ‘academics anonymous’ series, at other times it has been in response to research which has shone a light on the… Continue reading You can’t pour from an empty cup: self-care suggestions for ECRs
By Donna Littlewood. "What's no coincidence that the times that I harmed myself, one of the massive reasons of that was that I hadn't been sleeping. Just total lack of sleep. Majorly. It fucks you up." This quote is taken from a man who participated in a research interview on the role of sleep problems… Continue reading Suicidal thoughts and sleep problems
By Heather Sutherland. Perhaps the key, primary stress of the first year of doctoral study is about ‘literature reviewing’. “I’m working on my literature review” is the only identical phrase I’ve heard from peers across all subject areas, before they head off into their various quantitative or qualitative or mixed-method data-gathering phases. Whilst research topics… Continue reading Literature Review, meet personal knowledge…
By Kirsten Russell. Undertaking a PhD provides an invaluable opportunity to train and develop as an independent researcher. However, PhDs can also be challenging and it is easy to abandon academic self-care in the face of heavy workloads and imminent deadlines. Sleep is often the first thing we sacrifice, with many seeing it as a… Continue reading Is prioritising sleep the first step in academic self-care? Tips for getting a good night’s sleep during postgraduate study
By A. Jess Williams. Recently, a senior professor has taken to saying to me “calm down, things go wrong, nothing’s perfect”. Sounds grand, right? But to my way of thinking, this is telling me that I’ve done something wrong or that people think I’ve made a mistake - that’s frustrating for anyone, but my sneaky… Continue reading One of these is not like the others: Imposter syndrome within early career researchers
By Emma Nielsen. Hands up who has a favourite academic paper? You might not like to admit it but, if you do, you are amongst company. I certainly have a favourite. It is a paper I read as an undergraduate that challenged my thinking and got me engaged and questioning in a way no other… Continue reading LHR-BOS-LHR and the learning in between: Reflections on an OIV visiting fellowship
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