Every profession has its own challenges and academia is no exception. Given the intense and time-consuming nature of the work researchers perform, the challenges in academia are unique and have affected researchers globally for a while. Long work hours, the pressure to publish, and job uncertainty can cause depression, anxiety, and burnout in researchers. These emotional and psychosomatic manifestations could also affect their self-confidence, efficiency, and productivity. Researchers often feel isolated and overwhelmed, and thus, there is a pressing need for a platform that enables academics to connect with fellow researchers who may be going through similar struggles, to share experiences with them, and to seek and give advice and support.
R Voice: The concept and its genesis
R Voice is part of the ecosystem of tools for researchers, developed by Cactus Communications; it is a community platform designed to enable researchers to openly share their life journeys and challenges, discuss various ways in which their academic environments affect their lives, seek guidance from fellow researchers, and build their own support system in an otherwise harsh or demanding academic environment. The idea for this platform emerged from Editage Insights, a CACTUS forum hosting educational resources to help researchers in their professional progression. In a section on Editage Insights featuring personal stories, many researchers have shared moving and inspirational accounts of their academic lives. These include experiences that indicate how researchers often feel like they are alone, need a support system, and would actually benefit from being able to connect with fellow researchers who have experienced similar realities. Moreover, the results of a large scale global survey conducted by CACTUS on mental health in academia provided the evidence that supported the need for setting up R Voice as a safe space for researchers to have open conversations around aspects such as academic life and struggles, the academic culture, or mental health in academia.
Evidence from a large-scale survey among researchers
To get a glimpse into the research culture and mental well-being of researchers globally, CACTUS conducted a mental health survey from October 2019 to July 2020. The CACTUS Mental Health Survey is the largest and most diverse survey of its kind, with responses from over 13,000 researchers, across career stages, in 169 countries. The survey uncovered some thought-provoking findings.
Many researchers who took the survey acknowledged the support of peers but felt that the wider organization was less supportive and inspiring. A considerable proportion stated that they had felt overwhelmed by their work situation fairly or very often within the month before taking the survey. The competitive nature of academia was evidenced by responses stating that the pressure to perform and the burden of maintaining and improving one’s standing in the research community were major stressors. The lack of sufficient and high-quality resources was quoted as a hindrance by 44% of the respondents. Importantly, 37% of all respondents reported having experienced discrimination, harassment, and bullying. Many reported perceiving a lack of policies to counter these behaviors and/or unethical research/publication practices, as well as a lack of an adequate work–life balance. About half of the respondents working in a country different from their home country were also highly likely to report feeling overwhelmed. A worrying finding was that across regions and designations, female respondents were more likely to indicate that they felt overwhelmed than male respondents were.
Strikingly, nearly half of the survey respondents stated that they would not discuss work-related feelings of severe stress or anxiety with relevant people in their workplace. The general belief that stress and anxiety are normal in academic life often prevented researchers from seeking professional help when they experienced these feelings.
CACTUS has also published a follow-up report presenting the results of a thematic analysis of respondent comments on how a supportive research environment can be cultivated. An important theme emerging from this analysis was the need to improve workplace communication and collaboration and create a social environment, voiced by 17% of the sampled researchers.
How can R Voice help researchers?
On most online forums and social media platforms, discussions on academic life and culture devolve into intense negativity and personal attacks. Such scenarios invalidate the original intention to engage socially and might push the communicator further into a downward spiral. However, R Voice is highly supportive and positive, discouraging hurtful and disparaging content. It has a nurturing atmosphere and hopes to bring about greater positivity in the research culture worldwide.
Building a nurturing academic culture
Researchers experience multiple stressors in the course of their academic and professional journeys. An environment normalizing high levels of stress can make many scholars feel isolated, emphasizing the importance of a supportive community they can turn to in times of need. In this community for researchers, one can connect with hundreds, if not thousands, of fellow researchers across the globe. This researcher support system will benefit researchers at all career stages, as well as administrators who can make a difference by being cognizant of the challenges researchers typically face in their work environments, which in turn will help bring about a more positive and nurturing research culture.
