Frequently Asked Questions
Who can participate?
We seek participants who are DBBS-affiliated graduate students and faculty, and postdoctoral researchers who are doing biological or biomedical research both from East Asian countries and from the U.S. For the purpose of the study, we define East Asian researchers as those who are originally from China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, or Mongolia.
How long will the survey take?
The survey will take approximately 20 to 30 minutes. It can be taken online via Qualtrics at any time that is convenient for you before the end of the Fall 2020 semester when the survey will close. We are very eager to obtain responses to this survey promptly, as the survey step of the study will guide invitations to the interview follow-up portion of the study.
What does the survey entail?
The survey will present several hypothetical scenarios and will ask you to select the best two options for responding to the situation. Broadly, this survey will examine approaches you use to navigate professional challenges. The scenarios are from the perspective of a researcher and deal with topics like determining authorship, handling power dynamics, sharing research materials, and responding when research personnel make mistakes. Additionally, the survey includes a brief set of demographic questions.
Will survey participants be compensated?
Survey participants can enter a raffle to win one of thirty $50 Amazon gift cards.
What does the interview entail?
Sixty survey participants will be invited to participate in follow-up interviews. The interviews will last up to one hour, and be held virtually on Zoom. Interviews will explore in greater depth participant approaches to the professional challenges featured in the survey.
Will interview participants be compensated?
A portion of survey participants will be invited to participate in an hour-long follow-up interview. All interview participants will be compensated $40 for their time.
How many people will participate?
We are seeking at least 400 participants to complete the survey. Of those 400 participants, 60 will be invited to participate in a follow-up interview. All participants will be DBBS-affiliated graduate students and faculty, and postdoctoral researchers who are doing biological or biomedical research at Washington University.
How is East Asia defined in this study?
We define East Asian researchers as those who are originally from China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, or Mongolia.
Why does the study focus on East Asian and U.S. researchers?
This is one of the first studies to explicitly compare and contrast approaches to addressing challenges in the research workplace among researchers from different cultural backgrounds. The research team’s past research has suggested that cultural background may inform the way researchers approach such situations. The present study allows us to explore the potential role of cultural background with greater depth. Importantly, this study obtains input directly from researchers through follow-up interviews.
There are two key reasons for the focus on researchers who are from East Asia and the U.S. First, a significant proportion of the international researchers contributing to research in the U.S. are East Asian. For example, among postdocs in the U.S., typically at least 50% are East Asian.
Second, exploring and comparing approaches of researchers from Eastern and Western cultural backgrounds creates a comparison likely to reveal important similarities and differences.
We recognize that there are many other international researchers working in the U.S. We expect that the findings will be of value broadly for increasing awareness about culturally inclusive research workplaces. The curriculum portion of the project will explore perceptions and educational outcomes among all graduate students from any background. We hope to explore research questions in future projects that include the experiences of other international researchers.
Is the study only being conducted at Washington University?
Yes. Focusing on Washington University allows the methodological approach to account for the influence of university research culture because all researchers who participate will be at the same university. Additionally, focusing on WashU allows the findings to be applied to efforts at WashU to raise cultural awareness and develop programs and research curricula that are more culturally inclusive.
What types of professional challenges are explored in the study?
Numerous professional challenges can arise in the research workplace, like determining who should earn authorship credit, handling power dynamics, sharing research materials when projects are ongoing, or addressing when personnel make mistakes.
How will the research team keep participant data confidential?
Survey responses and interview responses are strictly confidential. Our research team has extensive experience conducting research with researchers and maintaining data confidentiality. We will store the survey data securely using IRB-approved protocols (IRB ID# 202007083). Files will be encrypted and password-protected, and only accessible to the research team. No data that includes participant identifiers will be shared with anyone outside the research team. Any report or manuscript we write will not include information that can directly identify you.