HASS Research- Tips for Working during COVID-19

Many things may be distracting you from research right now, from extra teaching work to difficulty concentrating through the constant flow of information about the current global crisis. It is really normal for you to be experiencing some disruption and feeling anxious about your productivity. Read this great article for some calm perspective. At some time in the future you may need to account for disruptions to your research, for example in ROPE statements or for career progression.

The HASS FRO recommends that you commence now in keeping a detailed record of these disruptions and their impact on your research. While everyone will have disruptions, your case will always be more compelling if it is specific, accurate, and framed positively. Think about what the disruption was (e.g. redesigning two courses for online delivery, couldn’t travel to focus groups), what the specific effect of the disruption was (e.g. was unable to work on article for two months, could not gather key data), and how you changed your research plan in response (e.g. bumped publication to following year, rescoped project using already published data). It is the cumulative effect of these disruptions that you should aim to capture, so that you can write a qualitative paragraph in your ROPE that explains them to assessors, and shows how you worked through them. More tips on writing ROPE and other research narratives here and here.

This tip is directed both to HDR students and their advisors, who play a key role in helping students manage themselves and their workloads, and especially in these very strange times. PhD and MPhil students are facing their own unique research challenges at the moment and the HASS FRO recognises that anxiety may be running high. No matter where you are in your project, you may be feeling unsure what you should be doing right now. As the current physical distancing measures are probably with us for several months, our recommendation is to break this period down into two phases.

Phase One (the rest of April)
This phase is for thinking and sorting things out. Rather than pushing yourself to be productive, take the time instead to get the foundations in place:

• Make your workspace is usable and safe
• Have a conversation with your family or housemates to set some guidelines about interruptions, shared equipment, child care and so on
• In consultation with advisors, revise your goals for how you will fit your tasks in over time: keep expectations realistic to reduce your stress.
• Make sure you are familiar with the FAQs provided by the Graduate School.

Phase Two (May until the end of physical distancing measures)
This phase is for easing back into productivity, in ways that you may not have expected to work. There may be more time now for desk-based, necessary work such as:

• Reading for and writing up literature review chapters, or methodology and conceptual framework chapters
• Lots of writing: not just chapters, but also potential publications
• Rescoping data collection: perhaps secondary data might be accessible and usable, or interviews or activities via Zoom might be possible (ethics amendment would be needed)
• Setting up and working through an editing plan
• Ask your advisory team about other ways to keep working

It may also be a good time to build research skills, professional skills, or other transferable skills through CDF courses. The Graduate School has a great selection online.

The current restrictions will pass. Be prepared to be nimble in your research for the next little while and, most importantly, stay in touch with your advisory team.

Physical distancing has added an extra layer of complication to our relationships with our research partners. Like you, they would probably appreciate reassurance about your shared project, even if there isn’t certainty around dates and deadlines. There might also be new opportunities in the air, in a rapidly changing environment.

1. Although there might not be much happening, it’s good to check in with your existing research partners to update them, to ask how the current crisis may be affecting them, or just to say hello and remind them the relationship remains valuable to you. A phone call may be as welcome as an email or Zoom meeting.
2. Be proactive about milestones, even if they fall a long way in the future, and think ahead about other potential necessary adjustments (e.g. project methodologies in the transition to teleconference interactions). Your RPM can help you with this. Contact Sarina Hobbin, or Tyrone Ridgeway if you are in ISSR.
3. It may not seem a great time for new partnerships, but a crisis can create silver-lining opportunities. Has the virus and the social response to it made your research more timely? Can you brainstorm with an existing contact to work up something new and competitive? Is there an opportunity to use your research to make a difference in societal recovery, and a perfect organisation you could approach to partner with?
4. And finally, familiarise yourself with the UQ Research Office’s information about COVID-19 and research partners. Go here and select Information to support your planning, then select 4. Contract research and consultancy agreements.

The HASS Faculty Research Office, have been dealing with multiple invitations to put researchers’ names forward for interdisciplinary research opportunities, including funding opportunities. This week’s tip is to make sure that your research is visible so that they can find you if you’re a good fit for an opportunity.

1. Write an up-to-date “Overview” section for your UQ Researchers profile (see examples here and here). The overview might include something about who you are, what key questions drive your research, what your key achievements might be, and what aspirations you have.
2. Write an up-to-date “Research Impacts” section for your UQ Researchers Profile (see examples here and here). An account of your impact might follow the “Impact Journey” model: inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, impacts.
3. Make sure you have an ORCID and that it is up to date. Multiple places, including the Australian Research Council’s RMS, draw from ORCID for lists of your publications.
4. Check that your eSpace is up to date, and add any new publications that have not appeared automatically. This is especially important for NTROs such as creative works and policy documents. NTROs require special eSpace entry that includes research support statements. Examples are provided on the site.
5. For help or advice with any of these tasks, contact HASS Faculty Research Office.

You may be feeling anxious that you haven’t progressed research goals, among major disruptions and relentless teaching duties. It’s difficult to read, write and be productive while distracted, and it’s likely you are finding it easier to perform “shallow” less intellectually demanding work. Before you can start writing again, it’s important to prepare yourself for “deep work”, or  “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task” (Newport 2016). Here are some tips for a quieter mind, ahead of a return to research and writing over the cooler months.

1. Limit your access to news. It may have become habitual for you to check in on what’s happening in the world frequently, but mental health experts are recommending checking news only once a day, and sticking with official sources.
2. Take an email break. Nothing is so urgent that you can’t switch off Outlook for a few hours while you do some reading or analysis. (And if something that urgent does come up, you can bet the University has a way of finding you!). In fact, leave checking your email until as late in the morning as you can. Start the day with your own agenda, not the inbox’s.
3. Schedule some thinking time in your diary as a recurring weekly event. It doesn’t have to be a whole day or even a whole morning; just an hour or two once or twice a week. Use the time to reflect on your research goals and imagine your outcomes. If it’s in your diary you are more likely to protect the time.
4. Outsource your willpower. There are plenty of programs that lock you out of the Internet or out of social media and other distracting sites for set amounts of time so you can have a quiet mind and think.
5. Make the most of small blocks of time. Perfect, uninterrupted days are like unicorns. Even a half hour between meetings or classes to take a few deep breaths and reconnect with your project can inspire you to get going again.

Even as restrictions begin to ease in Queensland and across Australia, it is still difficult to know when our usual activities, like fieldwork or presenting research, will resume. Given the disruption may continue for several more months, it might be a good time to look at ways you can plan your research within this “new normal”. 

Making connections virtually: We are all used to Zoom now, but plenty of other ways to connect digitally exist (WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, and many others, not to mention the old-fashioned non-digital ways like telephone). If your fieldwork was partly about making contact with new research subjects or collaborators, perhaps instead of deferring it you can build virtual relationships.

Alternative sources of data: Although there may be no alternatives for data collection for some of you right now, others might be able to consider alternative sources of data. Consider publicly available data sets, systematic literature reviews, or online interviews, surveys, or discussion platforms. This crowdsourced document provides some great methods for social researchers who conduct face-to-face fieldwork.

Keep on conferencing: Many conferences are now offering virtual options. Perhaps instead of cancelling all together you can still get involved. For international conferences, it may mean getting up in the middle of the night to attend, but the jet lag might be slightly easier to recover from!

Pivot to the do-able: Without travel, qualitative coding, and preparing for conference papers, there may be more time to write. It can be part of a larger project, for example a literature review or conceptual framework, or it can be something new aimed at timely publication and building track record.

Be part of the solution: The silver lining in all of this is the way that people are reimagining our usual research activity. The usual twenty-minute conference paper in a traditional thematic panel is being upended; research engagement is taking place on different platforms that can reach wider audiences; and researchers are using their knowledge to create hope in dark times. It’s a good moment to think creatively about your research and how it can reach its different audiences.

Ask for help: The HASS team are always here to support you.

How do you find research funding outside the ARC? A/Prof Kim Wilkins talks to A/Prof Cameron Parsell (School of Social Science) about making yourself more competitive for categories 2, 3, and 4 research funding.

Other sources of funding are listed in the FRO on Friday every week.

Maybe it’s been a while since you did any writing up. It’s one of those tasks that can slip during busy teaching times, especially with the load of getting classes online. Sometimes when you’ve been away from a project for a long time, it can be difficult to find your way back in. The following four steps are a proven method to get you writing again. 

Plan: Don’t even think about sitting down to write until you are sure what you are going to work on. The more structure you can give your writing session the better. Do you need to settle on which project or chapter or section to tackle first? Write up a dot-point skeleton? Transcribe notes into a document outline? How about sketching down topic sentences, like you used to in high school? Anything you can do to make the task of writing easier is worth doing. 

Schedule: Open your diary, find a one- or two-hour block and schedule in your writing session and do not give this time away. Set an alert half an hour beforehand so that you can gather your materials, turn off your email and other distractions, make coffee or tea, and get in the right mindset. Set a modest goal. Anyone can write 500 words, right? (For reference, this tip of the week is about 500 words). Perhaps you’re behind on a deadline and 500 words seems like nowhere near enough. Remember: big projects get written in regular small blocks. Next time you schedule a writing session, you can aim higher. For now, just commit to starting.

Write and see what happens: Rather than pressuring yourself to write deathless prose, try to remain curious about the process, and about what you can do if you try to write today. If you find you can’t get the words on the page, say a sentence aloud but simply: the way you might explain something to a smart teenager. Then transcribe that. You can always fix it later. Can’t think of the right word? Don’t try to force it out: put a pair of brackets around a not-quite-right word and come back to it. See if you can get to 50 words. When you’re there, see if you can get to 100. By the time you’re at 200, you should have the momentum to achieve your goal for the session. 

Celebrate: When you are done, don’t just rush back to your email. Stop and look over what you’ve written and notice what you like about it. Plan where you might go next time you schedule a writing session. Then go and reward yourself with some chocolate or some cheese (or chocolate-covered cheese if that’s your thing). You did it! 
 

Is your writing sinking to the bottom of your list?

A/Prof Kim Wilkins talks to A/Prof Suzanna Fay (School of Social Science) about how to change your mindset around writing, so you look forward to it instead of dreading it.

A/Prof Kim Wilkins talks to A/Prof Rhonda Faragher (School of Education) about the hows and whys of working with researchers from other disciplines.

Need to apply for ethical clearance and not sure where to start? A/Prof Kim Wilkins talks to A/Prof Liz Mackinlay about the steps required.