Safeguarding Researchers Engaged in Psychologically and Physically Risky Research at the University of Portsmouth

What is the issue?

Protecting participants from harm has become a requirement of research, with multitudes of laws, codes, guidance, policies, and procedures put in place for researchers and wider institutions to follow. There is a duty upon the researcher and their institution to ensure that participants understand the risks that they are signing up for. Rightly so, we might add, as these issues can have dire consequences if not followed. However, protection from harm has often been neglected by institutions and wider laws, codes, and policies when it comes to researchers themselves.

Researchers are often at risk of harm when engaging in research that involves vulnerable populations, dangerous environments, or intense emotional or mental strain. Risks can range from emotional trauma for researchers working with vulnerable populations (e.g., victims of abuse, refugees, or individuals with severe mental health issues) to physical harm in studies involving high-risk environments or activities (e.g., fieldwork in dangerous locations, medical research, or drug trials). Additionally, as cybertechnology has advanced, so have cyber-risks, with researchers placed at risk of online harassment, including sexual harassment, identity theft, violent and or/death threats, and doxing. Such online harassment has emerged as a pervasive, yet frequently institutionally overlooked, dimension of academic life globally. This phenomenon affects not only scholars who research digital environments but also those who simply utilise online platforms to disseminate their work.

Why is this issue important?

Emotionally demanding research can require substantial mental, emotional, and physical energy from the researcher. It can contribute to cynicism of worldview, researcher burnout, compassion fatigue, and even re-traumatisation. The emotional toll is even greater when one feels greater emotional and personal proximity to their research topic and/or participants. Williamson and colleagues described this as the “cost of caring” in their 2020 article on moral injury and the need to carry out ethically responsible research. Researchers have called for academic institutions to implement support systems to ensure research is psychologically safe, yet some argue that the necessary changes have largely been unimplemented as of yet.

Whilst the last decade has seen a shift surrounding the approach to risk management, researchers still face physical risks today in areas such as fieldwork and laboratories. For instance, 26% of female trainee researchers reported experiencing sexual assault during fieldwork in Clancy and colleagues’ 2014 research on academic field experiences. Additionally, numerous fatal and injurious incidents have been reported in research on health and safety within university laboratories worldwide. Mair and colleagues have recently demanded for UK institutions to develop more inclusive fieldwork policies and practice, after research of theirs found that inclusion and safety within fieldwork policies was insufficiently prioritised.

Online engagement is increasingly expected of researchers within academia, making safety in digital spaces not merely a personal concern but an institutional issue. Yet, online safety is often seen as an individual responsibility rather than an institutional one, allowing universities to reap the benefits of public research dissemination whilst evading responsibility of safeguarding their staff. Scholars facing online harassment report increased levels of psychological stress, lower trust, and lower perceived social support according to Oksanen and colleagues; who called for organisational, societal, and legislative measures to be put in place to overcome this prevalent issue.

As it stands, researchers face several safeguarding risks when pursuing research. However, current legislation and institutional policies are woefully underdeveloped to be able to proactively and effectively minimise these risks, nor do current policies have effective support in place for after harm occurs. Researchers across the board have now put out a call for institutions to better develop their policies in order to protect researchers from the psychological, physical, and online risks they currently face.

What is the project investigating?

This project is investigating the current measures in place at the university to protect and safeguard researchers who engage in risky research. We are doing this through several methods. The first has been through conducting a critical review of the current provisions in place for researchers at the University of Portsmouth to systematically identify any areas where current policy is falling short in terms of protecting researchers. Our current stage involves understanding what researchers at the University of Portsmouth believe risky research to be and how this interacts with vulnerable characteristics. We are also investigating researchers’ perceptions, knowledge, and experiences with risky research and existing safeguards within University of Portsmouth policy.

What do you hope to find?

With this research project, we hope to identify areas that can be improved within UoP policies to better protect academic researchers of all stages. With our future findings, we hope to provide specific institutional recommendations to improve safety measures, alongside practical steps for implementation. We hope that by conducting this research project, we will encourage academic institutions to begin implementing the proactive measures so desperately needed for and requested by scholars.

Katie Short
Lisa Sugiura
Stu Lucy
Aram Ghaemmaghami