The road to research independence may be bumpy. These lessons can help

From ScienceMag:

Achieving independence is a rite of passage in an academic career. But for many early-career researchers, when and how it occurs can feel elusive. It doesn’t help that institutions, funders, policymakers, and even scholars often have different interpretations of what it means.

For some, independence can refer to gaining the knowledge and skills to conduct research autonomously at the end of doctoral training, says Dangeni, a higher education postdoctoral researcher at Anglia Ruskin University. For others, researcher independence can be developing an academic identity or publishing papers and securing funding, she adds.

To shed light on what it really feels like and how it evolves over time, Dangeni and five other higher education scholars who have trained and worked around the world reflected on their own paths to independence. Using an evocative approach that involves visualizing their experience as rivers, they found their journeys shared key common traits, they report in a paper published last month. For all of them, developing independence has been “a bumpy road,” says lead author Yusuke Sakurai, an associate professor at Hiroshima University. And to push ahead, they’ve had to demonstrate agency and seek validation from others in their community, he adds.

Science Careers talked to Dangeni and Sakurai about how the study may inform the journeys of other early-career researchers. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: Can you explain the “river of experience” method you used in the study? Do you think this could serve as a useful reflective tool for early-career researchers?

Dangeni:  This approach consists of drawing a certain journey as a river, with each bend of the river representing a significant moment, person, or factor that impacted your journey. It’s a powerful approach to unveil unspoken thoughts and feelings. When you draw this river out, maybe something just comes out subconsciously, and when you dig into it through questions from others, you will realize there’s a hidden impact or factor. So I would say that it’s a really helpful tool to start reflecting on your own journey, but it’s more important to talk it through with either your supervisor or your peers to gain deeper insights.

Q: What insights does this study offer for early-career researchers seeking to develop independence?

Yusuke Sakurai:  First, things do not always go smoothly. You will come across difficulties and challenges. Sometimes you are making progress and sometimes you run into roadblocks and cannot push things forward. Knowing that beforehand is quite important for doctoral students and early-career researchers to be emotionally ready. And then, at the same time, they have to take control of their own experiences. So they should develop an ability to analyze and reflect on the academic skills and knowledge they already have and those they still need to develop. They should strategically and proactively think about their own career development. Finally, they should seek opportunities to get validation from others in their field to grow their self-confidence and sense of competence. Of course, sometimes it’s difficult, like when a publication or a grant is rejected, but getting positive comments from your supervisor or being invited to contribute to a project can also be empowering. As a doctoral student, simply talking to like-minded researchers at conferences about each other’s research contributed to my sense of independence by making me think, “Oh, yes, I can be a researcher in the future.”

Q: What facilitates or impedes independence?

Y.S.:  It’s quite difficult to judge if specific factors are hinderers or promoters. Supervisors, for example, are really helpful to achieve conference presentations and publications. But at the same time, too much support—or too little—can also be an impediment. This and other things can be a double-edged sword. That’s why taking control of their own experiences to the extent possible is so important for doctoral students. When submitting a draft manuscript to their supervisor, for example, you could acknowledge that supervisors are busy by saying there is no need for immediate feedback and that you can continue working on other tasks in the meantime. This kind of communication may help maintain a healthy and supportive working relationship while making sure you keep making progress

D.: It would be helpful for Ph.D. researchers to have tailored discussions with their supervisors throughout their training about how they see themselves and their future careers. Universities should also support early-career researchers by offering them space and opportunities to develop themselves, regardless of whether they want to pursue a career in research or elsewhere.

Q: How did the idea for this study come about?

Y.S.: Myself and Dangeni are members of a special interest group focusing on researcher careers within the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. In 2024, we all gathered for a workshop on researcher independence. In the literature, researcher perspectives spanning doctoral, early-career, and midcareer stages seemed to be missing. So, in our project, we took a very exploratory approach, trying to reconstruct the concept of researcher independence across career stages from our lived experiences.

D.: This whole idea started with the publication of a book by Elliot et al. on how to support researcher independence, which was quite a heated discussion topic back then. Now, we’re all social scientists in the study, so maybe we’re more familiar with working by ourselves than researchers in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] areas, who might work more extensively with others in a lab. But STEM researchers, too, are expected to experience and practice researcher independence. So, many of the things that we shared in our study, like the bumpy road or the importance of validation, might come in at different stages depending on your discipline. But there might be some similarities.

Q: What was a particularly low time for you on your journey toward independence, and how did you navigate it?

D.: In my river, I draw taking a professional development adviser role right after my Ph.D. as a bend, because there were not many available researcher roles at that time. As an international scholar, I also needed to obtain a stable visa. I enjoyed it very much, because it gave me intense teaching hours, and I managed to seek out different opportunities. But it was quite challenging to maintain my researcher identity, because no research engagement came with this role. I had to continue doing research in my own time, actively pursuing publications and attending carefully selected meetings and conferences to stay in touch with my research community. I was able to come back to research full-time 2 years later with a postdoctoral position. But looking back, the experience was really challenging in terms of my time management and my physical and mental well-being.

Y.S.: Like Dangeni, a major turning point for me was right after finishing my Ph.D., which I did in Finland. I returned to Japan, but the competitiveness for research positions was such that I had to find an alternative route to survive in academia while searching for a better fit. I first took a fixed-term position, in which I was mainly in charge of administrative and management work as an assistant professor. Four years later, I got a teaching and research position in language education; however, the heavy teaching and other responsibilities limited the time I could devote to research. Altogether, it took me 7 years to land back on my ideal pathway with my current role. To get there, I had to be strategic, recognizing that having weak personal connections back in Japan was a roadblock to my career progression and actively going to national conferences to create my network.

Q: Have you experienced psychological distress in your search for independence? Do you have any insights on how to deal with this?

Y.S.: The workaholic tendency in Japanese academia was a culture shock for me upon returning from Finland, as they continue exchanging emails during the weekends and in the evening. This affected my sense of independence, because that was not really my way of working and I found the pressure difficult to manage. But over time, I learned to ignore the emails that can be replied to on Monday even though you got them on Saturday, and that increased my sense of control over my work.

D.: Because developing into a fully-fledged researcher is such a long and gradual journey, full of ups and downs, I feel that our well-being is constantly affected. People talk about resilience a lot. Sometimes I agree, but sometimes I feel that overresilience can also be very problematic. Based on our study, I’d recommend not being too harsh on yourself, as we have limited time, limited resources. We have to be very strategic about what we can do and what we cannot, prioritizing certain activities or leaving them for a later stage in our career. The many shared experiences in our journeys show that we’re not alone, but we need to find out whom we should seek help from and which direction we should take to develop ourselves.

Q: Is there such a thing as true independence?

D.: That’s such a tricky question. It’s inevitable to have to constantly validate your sense of independence through feedback from others. And for moving up to the next career stage, we are evaluated through outputs like funding and publications and other very specific criteria, so researcher independence is conditional in a way. But mapping out what it means to you and identifying certain areas that you would like to develop is a really good way to start taking control of your independence.

Y.S.: It’s quite difficult to define what perfect research independence is, as people have different ambitions and expectations. You have to make your own decisions about how you want to develop your career and what kinds of achievements you want to make. Having said that, you must also think about producing a variety of outputs and having a lot of support from different angles. Well-roundedness, I feel, might be important to nurture independence in a research career.

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