Survival Guide for Early Career Researchers

Navigating research careers is often highly challenging for early career researchers (ECRs) in the social sciences. The ability to thrive in research careers is complex and requires ＂soft＂ people and management skills and resilience that often cannot be formally taught through university coursework. Written from a peer perspective, this book provides guidance and establishes emotional rapport on topical issues relevant for ECRs in academia and industry. The authors are ECRs who have been successful in navigating their careers, and they seek to connect with readers in a supportive and collegial manner.

Each chapter includes elements of story-telling and scientific thinking and is organized into three parts: (1) a personal story that is relevant to the topic; (2) key content on professional and personal effectiveness based on evidence in the psychological, sociological, and/or management sciences; and (3) action points and practical recommendations. The topics covered arespecifically curated for people considering undertaking research careers or already working in research, including:

• Work Hard, Snore Hard: Recovery from Work for Early Career Researchers
• Networking and Collaborating in Academia: Increasing Your Scientific Impact and Having Fun in the Process
  
• Accelerating Your Research Career with Open Science
• Engaging with the Press and Media
• Make Your Science Go Viral: How to Maximize the Impact of Your Research
• Exploring the Horizon: Navigating Research Careers Outside of Academia
• Thinking like an Implementation Scientist and Applying Your Research in Practice

Survival Guide for Early Career Researchers summarizes relevant evidence-based research to offer advice in strategic but also supportive ways to ECRs. It is an essential go-to practical resource for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. This book will also benefit senior researchers who are serving as mentors or delivering professional development programs, administrators and educators in institutions of higher learning, and anyone with an interest in building a successful research career.

Dominika Kwasnicka, MA, MSc, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow at University of Melbourne, Australia and SWPS University, Poland. She is a Director of Open Digital Health and Head Editor of Practical Health Psychology. Her goal is to make the research world a fair and inclusive space where diversity, creativity, and innovation thrive.

Alden Yuanhong Lai, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor at New York University and executive advisor to the Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation. He studies how to improve the jobs and working environments of healthcare workers, and seeks to apply his research on employee wellbeing to his own academic life.