Liggett, Daniela;
Herbert, Andrea;
Badhe, Renuka;
Charnley, Gina EC;
Hudson, KPC;
Kelman, Ilan;
Lee, Won Sang;
... Yermakova, Yelena; + view all
(2023)
Researchers on ice? How the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Antarctic researchers.
Antarctic Science
, 35
(2)
pp. 141-160.
10.1017/s0954102023000020.
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related measures have impacted the lives and work-related activities of Antarctic researchers. To explore these impacts, we designed, piloted and disseminated an online survey in English, Russian, Spanish and Chinese in late 2020 and early 2021. The survey explored how the pandemic affected the productivity of Antarctic researchers, their career prospects and their mental wellbeing. Findings exposed patterns of inequities. For instance, of the 406 unique responses to the survey, women appeared to have been affected more adversely than men, especially in relation to mental health, and early-career researchers were disadvantaged more than their mid- or late-career colleagues. Overall, a third of the research participants reported at least one major negative impact from the pandemic on their mental health. Approximately half of the participants also mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic had some positive effects, especially in terms of the advantages that working from home brought and opportunities to attend events, network or benefit from training workshops online. We conclude with a series of recommendations for science administrators and policymakers to mitigate the most serious adverse impacts of the pandemic on Antarctic research communities, with implications for other contexts where scientific activities are conducted under extreme circumstances.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Researchers on ice? How the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Antarctic researchers |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s0954102023000020 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000020 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Academia, Antarctic research community, fieldwork, gender, mental health, pandemic, survey |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Inst for Risk and Disaster Reduction |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169760 |
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