The ‘Life in Research’ channel is the perfect place for you to share your stories and experiences in academia, the lab, or out in the field. Diving into engaging summaries and highlights from recent events that keep you connected to the latest happenings in your field, sharing new experiences and collaborations with peers from around the world, and shining a spotlight on insights into life as a researcher!
In this channel, we invite you to share your personal stories and experiences from your life as a researcher with your peers and the global research community. Below you will find some examples that the Community would love to welcome to the Life and Research channel, with tips on what to include in your post and how to make it more engaging. This list is not exhaustive, and you are welcome to be inspired and explore other types of blog posts exploring life in research too.
If you’d like to contribute to the channel but have a question or would like some advice, please get in touch with the team.
Celebrating events/conferences
Creating an engaging event round-up on the ‘Life in Research’ channel is an excellent way to provide the community an insight into your experiences. Whether you were a speaker, organiser, or a participant, writing a recap is a great way to keep your audience engaged and encourage future participation.
You can find out more about sharing an event roundup here. If you’d like to share details of an upcoming event with the community, you can add that to the ‘Events’ channel.
Share your fieldwork experiences and insights
Fieldwork stories provide an exciting and unique perspective on aspects of your research that others may rarely see. Through the Life in Research channel you can share the breakthroughs, challenges and even unexpected moments you encountered while working in the field. It is a great place to highlight how this hands-on experience contributed to your research or helped deepen your understanding of your field.
Day in the life
A “Day in the Life” post offers a great opportunity to talk about how you balance research with personal responsibilities or passions, and what a day as a researcher or student (etc) in a certain field or profession looks like. You can include your daily routine as well as the happenings throughout a chosen day: How does your day start? What kind of work fills your time? What are the challenges you face and how do you overcome them?
Incorporating high-quality images or videos of your workspace, daily routine or moment can make the post more engaging.
Highlight your lived experience as a researcher
Telling your story in a way that emphasises your unique perspective, whether that be as an early career researcher, a parent working in research, or a PhD student navigating new research challenges. For example:
Life as a parent in research: How do you manage lab time while being a parent?
Life as a PhD student: What are the pressures, and how do you handle them?
Life as a researcher in industry: How do you bridge the gap between academic and industry research?
Posts like these provide a highly valuable perspective on the challenges and successes in balancing life and work, help others find experiences they can relate to, and provide an opportunity for stronger connection with your community. This can also be a space to share your advice and experience with others in a similar position.
Research podcast
Podcasts are a powerful tool for researchers to communicate their work, share insights, and reach a broader audience. Whether you’re diving deep into new findings, interviewing fellow researchers, or sharing the ups and downs of academic life, a podcast can make your research more accessible and engaging to a wider audience.
We recommend including a transcript of the podcast in your post for those who may be unable to listen to audio content.
Q&A / Interview
A post can also take the form of a Q&A where the author answers a set of predetermined questions or interviews a researcher. An interview post on the Life in Research channel is a great way to highlight personal journeys, unique research stories, and insights from peers in the community.
This format of posts is also a great opportunity to collaborate with your peers and bring multiple perspectives to a conversation.
What not to post
All posts should be relevant to the research landscape and discuss research-adjacent topics, as well as adhere to the Community Guidelines. If you’re not sure if something is a good fit for the Life in Research Channel or whether it would adhere to the Community Guidelines, please reach out to the team.
Examples from Life in Research
Event roundups:
NHS Research & Development Forum 2024 - an engaging overview of the experience presenting a poster at the NHS Research and Development Forum
Highlights from European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024 - an editor’s perspective on sharing her highlights from European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024
Adaptation Futures- A brilliant conference -an editor's reflection on their experiences at the 2023 Adaptation Futures conference in Montreal Canada, October 2023.
Podcast:
Podcast: Sneak-peek of the 2024 ISSCR annual meeting-A podcast with good structure including a transcript for those who may be unable to listen to audio content.
By following these tips, you can create an engaging blog post that not only informs but also inspires and connects you with your network and beyond. If you have any questions about writing a post, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team.
We look forward to reading your posts!
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Thanks so much for making such a great information on the importance of "Life of Research"