Time for change report
2021

Introduction

Over the last few years, parts of the academic community have become frustrated and disillusioned by the norms within research culture that are holding back progress. The academy’s tie to impact metrics and citations, a trend towards insecure contracts, and a lack of diversity, are among the issues that have come to the fore. COVID has compounded these concerns, leading to greater insecurity and deeper disparities.

Despite the ongoing problems within academic culture, there are signs in some disciplines and countries that the research industry is beginning to take note of the issues and explore ways to transform the system. Some funders are looking at ways to make research culture fairer and more inclusive, and to foster an environment where diverse contributions and outputs are recognised and celebrated. Another significant move is the drive towards open and rapid publication. Response to the pandemic has been a force for good in this space, with publishers making research available via open access journals and platforms and providing free and open access to COVID-related research.

Now in its third year, Emerald’s Time for change report 2021 explores the challenges within academic culture and gauges interest for change. Themes include research evaluation, academic culture, openness and transparency and the evolving role of the publisher. In addition, we consider the impact of COVID-19 on the research community, the widening disparities that it has left behind and the pressing need for research into societal challenges. By reporting academics’ views and lived experiences, we aim to create momentum towards a fairer and more inclusive environment where impactful research can thrive.

The report is based on the findings of a global survey of literati that we conducted during July–August 2021. Here, we present the results of the survey and actions for change.
 

Takeaways

In response to COVID-19, academics have made radical changes to the way they work, teach, collaborate and research. However, at a time when academia should be thinking about making further changes to help tackle the biggest societal issues we’ve seen in decades, their appetite for change appears to have stalled and, in some areas, may have declined.

Many academics appear to have ‘change fatigue’ and want to maintain the status quo; however, others are keen to transform the system. Those wanting change are concerned over the future of academia, they see widening inequalities and divisions between groups. They are worried about the way citation-based systems disadvantage academics living in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), the effect of remote working on research (particularly among women academics), and the impact of the digital divide on academics in the global south.

Furthermore, they see growing divisions among groups, including the inequalities between men and women, early career researchers and established academics, and the global north and south.

Key findings

Ten key findings emerged from the Time for change survey 2021 on the issues of widening inequalities, research evaluation, academic culture, openness and transparency, and the publisher's evolving role.

1	Growing gender gap	Nearly twice as many female (40%) than male (22%) academics agree that COVID-19 has made the gender gap even wider in their institution or region.
2	Almost half want new metrics	47% of academics, want to introduce metrics beyond citation metrics, this is marginally up from 46% in 2020, but still behind 51% in 2019.
3	Impact factors remain strong	70% chose journal citations and impact factors as the main way research impact is currently measured, marginally down on 2020 (71%), but up on 2019 (58%).
4	Three main barriers to change	55% believe that incentives for career progression still aligned to traditional impact metrics is the key challenge to changing the way research impact is measured, followed by difficulty of tracking impact beyond academia (51%) and lack of clarity on what other measures could replace rankings (49%).
5	Support for open access	46% of academics globally are willing to publish open access and share links to supporting datasets, followed by 43% who say they would consider publishing non-traditional content if the rewards mechanisms were in place.
6	Boost collaboration	60% of academics believe that more opportunities for collaboration with industry and practice is key for driving change. Next important is having more publishers make research open access (50%).
7	Quitting academia	1 in 5 (19%) women versus 12% of men consider leaving academia all the time. Unhappiest academics live in Australasia, with nearly 1 in 3 thinking about leaving, followed by 1 in 4 in North America.#
8	Personal toll of academia	Around 1 in 10 academics say their job has had a large negative affect on them personally, impacting their career ambitions (8%), relationships (8%), mental health (9%), physical health (10%) and sleep patterns (12%).
9	Challenges to open	74% of academics globally say funding is the top barrier to open publishing. There are also concerns over the open sharing of sensitive data (53%) and security around the reuse of data (47%).
10	Publishers should act	60% of academics believe publishers could improve academic culture by offering different options to publish, and 48% think they should provide more support for post-publication promotion.