Zurich Survey of Academics

Principle Investigator: Prof. Dr. Heiko Rauhut

Researcher: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Justus Rathmann, Antonia Velicu

Recent developments, such as the significant increase in the number of large and interdisciplinary research teams, the strengthening of the open access movement and calls for more transparency in research, but also the replication crisis, pose new challenges for modern science. This motivated the Department of Sociology at the University of Zurich to commission the Umfragezentrum Bonn (uzbonn, Bonn Survey Centre) to conduct a survey among academics at universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH region). The aim of the survey is to obtain in-depth insights into the everyday work of researchers in the DACH region and to learn how researchers deal with conflicts and increasing pressure to publish. The survey is part of the project Social norms, cooperation and conflict in scientific collaborations (CONCISE (PDF, 722 KB)), which is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (BSSGI0_155981).

The thematic focus of the survey is particularly on:

• the work and research situation of scientists
• authorship norms and practices
• publication strategies
• publication bias
• academic integrity and
• science communication.

In order to obtain the most comprehensive picture possible, the survey is supplemented by exciting survey methods, such as an Implicit Association Test (IAT).