Do I feel included? Experience and thoughts from a part-time PGR

In this post, Susan Quick, a part-time PGR in the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) reflects on issues of inclusivity.

Whilst browsing the many training/job opportunities for PGRs recently I was reminded that ‘PGR/ Early career’ does not always mean inexperienced or young. Labels can be misleading even if they also help us to target training and exchange with our peers in a particular discipline or field. Younger people need extra support to enable them to navigate the world of employment. Sometimes this means that bias is totally justified, but at other times it is more important to examine ‘need’ rather than age, career stage or some other protected personal characteristic. In my view the needs of applicants, whether for a job or a training course, should enable perspectives of ‘equal opportunity’ over and above those instilled in legal and institutional principles.

Survive and Thrive: Adaptability and Resilience

Continuing her occasional series, “survive and thrive”, Katie Hoare from Careers Network explores a key skill sought after by employers in the post-COVID-19 world.  It’s likely that you are already developing and using these highly transferable skills in your research.

What

According to The Cambridge Dictionary, adaptability is “an ability or willingness to change in order to suit different conditions”.  The term can be applied to people, businesses, physical spaces and technology.  If something or someone is not adaptable, its use and benefit can be short lived.  Resilience has become a buzz word in recent years.  It can be defined as the “ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change” (Merriam-Webster).  In order to be resilient, you need to be adaptable.

Spotlight on the RDF: “Attribution and co-authorship”

In this series of “Spotlight on…” posts, we’ll be delving into the detail of the descriptors in Vitae‘s Researcher Development Framework (RDF).  Each one of the sixty-three descriptors is a characteristic of an excellent researcher, and we’ll be looking at how UoB PGRs can develop these characteristics.

Recently, a question from a PGR found its way to my e-mail inbox, and it got me thinking about the various influences on attribution and co-authorship that can be tricky to navigate for those new to publishing their work.

Listing the authors tells readers who did the work and should ensure that the right people get the credit, and take responsibility, for the research. 

Committee on Publication Ethics, https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2018.1.1

While it may seem initially obvious, authorship is in fact an area which is influenced by factors including disciplinary culture. There may be some hidden expectations in your department or discipline, and it’s an area of research culture that all researchers new to publishing should be familiar with, and influencing positively.