The term "Working from Home(WFH)" has become familiar during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Recently millions of people around the world have been forced to work from home because of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. People from different jobs are facing several challenges to keep carry on their service from home. However, in a profession like research where fieldwork in terms of data collection has faced challenge to proceed. So, this question intended to know what are the barriers researchers are facing to perform their researches while working from home in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Well not everyone has to be active in the "fieldwork"
Reading and writing articles, data analysis etc. and basically there are many "non- fieldwork" duties which can be done at home.
For those out there, active in the labs, yes its difficult but that's what comes in the package. When you have an aim, pandemic or not, you'll do it no matter what:)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.mongabay.com/2020/04/field-research-interrupted-how-the-covid-19-crisis-is-stalling-science/amp/
The person who has to work either in the field or laboratory may face problem due to COVID- 19 epidemic. However, others can do their jobs from home. I have published several papers in good scientific journals during the lock down period.
Facing trouble during work from home- Poor speed of internet, lack of control on employees, chances of breaching of confidentiality of data, etc
- financial as I am self-employed
- my computer is barely working, including fact that keyboard doesn't read 'e' and I have no money for new, while majority of work is literature research and Bioinformatics - so writing now really takes longer than usual :)
- I have missing data about O2 intoxicity and I need to create new maths for safety profile and my finding in application of my therapy in mental health and neurological disorder challenge
- I have no lab, no COVID-19 sample, I am missing nervous tissue to challenge my assumption
- my family is in Poland and I am alone living with stranger, who left me in his home and went somewhere with his caravan and my anxiety level is super high :)
- all flights I book are cancelled and I am mother of my only child and my finding shows that testis may be affected and I can not maybe dream about another child, but maybe I will never become grandma,
- next to it I've sent my proposal almost everywhere and it do not matter that it works, bigger minds than me from top universities face same problems and I suffer from lack of hope and I need to see how economy is going down,
- and in the end Polish embassy do not answer for any support call which means that is more than bing alone, this is a neglect.
There is no set office hours for work in Work from home
I feel completely disconnected my colleagues (face to face communication is the key)
I feel that any type of restriction in use of technology platform hinders my work efficiency
I think continuous arrival of guest and outsiders distract me
I think unproductive use of social media impacted my work negatively
I think my colleagues might accuse me of slacking in my work
I think I am not able to establish proper communication with colleagues
I find difficulty in sticking to routine of office and home
I think waiting period for any answer is more
Pros and cons of working from home for researchers during COVID-19 pandemic
Pros:
Research studies based on questionnaires, electronic input by people, surveys by telephone, doing meta-analysis, and writing manuscripts of completed research studies can be done during lock-down and working from home.
Cons:
However, research involving field-work, animal studies or clinical studies needing evaluation of the people by examination and clinic follow up is not possible when the researchers are home-bound due to lock downs.
Research involving field-work, animal studies or clinical studies needing evaluation of the people by examination and clinic follow up is not possible
Other than field work and physical involvement you may proceed to enrich your research armament: attentive reading of more and more publications on your discipline, gathering more knowledge and statistical skills, planning, distant learning, scrutinizing protocols, virtual meet with your mentors/guides/co-researchers, preparation of timelines, manuscript writing, reviewing, editing etc.
I read plenty of other answers and all of you are right at your points. But what biology says, we need to adapt to situations to survive. Although for my case, it is merely anything more difficult. My work consists of data science, analysis of bioinformatics, so I can do it all from home, but other fields are quite disturbed maybe. i recall one of my friends, who is in pharmacy field has recently detected a mistake in their experiments, that was conducted back in February. But, she has no way now to redo it. Lots of other experimental researches are also being hampered. whereas talking about other fields than research is even way more critical. So, we cam do nothing but relying upon science.
I hope everyone of you are safe and secured and lets hope for best.
Good question! Our research team is working with EMS data to spatially analyse the evolution of suspected COVID-19 cases to confirmed cases. The data is very sensitive. Usually we would transfer the data via hard drive. It's big data
Lack of concentration, boredom, switching between domestic and office activities
The sudden announcement of lockdown has brought to halt many of the laboratory investigations abruptly, particularly those involving long term observations and cyclic period tests. This is particularly very painful when the tests have to run for periods of 48 weeks and more. Now all the tests will have to be rerun. This is the biggest challenge I am facing now.
Though there is lot of time now to complete pet research projects, working ones have taken the brunt.
Literature survey for implementing new research work can be carried out. After this pandemic period how our research can help the society ? Ideas can formulated for writing the research proposals .
Good question! The main difficulty I am facing is mixing between academic and domestic duties. Plus, of course, sometimes I do feel bored!
Yes @ Jinan abi Jumma. I agree I am facing also between academic and domestic duties and sometimes feel bored!
1. As an agronomist, I have felt problem in field works for which I generally take help of auxiliary staffs who remained absent due to threat of COVID19. 2. Expectations were more from employer as well as household activities. 3. Gained some weight.
During this crucial time is very much important for the researchers for research on self at what extent you are capable to handle the situations like invisible virus war. So it is time to enhance your innate capacity with help of your own research dimension. Because researcher have a capacity to connect his research with any system of the universe.
The challenges are many more so for folks who have children. I have a one year old who needs constant attention and so even if I wanted to write papers and look at work things ( I have full remote set up), I do not think I could. My wife is a GP in the UK as well, and we share childcare. She cannot do anything from home either, and the output apart from direct clinical care still needs to happen.
This is a very good blog summarising some issues. Working from home also means never switching off fully.
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/04/covid-fatigue-is-taking-an-enormous-toll-on-healthcare-workers/
For a researcher it is an anomaly, a nonsense to research in a house in front of a laptop. The social science researchers who carry out field work need to reinvent themselves in this new stage. Interviewing informants on social media is a non-scientific method. Therefore, we urgently need a return to normality. It is a challenge. We have to find a way out of this chaos.
Honestly, it has not been very easy. I developed an online questionnaire for one of my works. However, I just feel that I need to do a one- on-one oral interview in another work. I must do it, because it has to do with agricultural product that is seasonal(between March and early June). Though there are online resources, the Libraries still seem important to me because I know that some materials are available in libraries. Anyway, I've made face masks and hand sanitizers available to go and conduct the oral interviews.
It gave me more time to write my manuscript. My internet bill increase 60%.
Working from became a challenge since the kids want to play anytime. I can not concentrate working alone even if I'm in different room. The kids are just excited to see me around all the time.
Also, the internet bill increased compared before COVID19 quarantine. Good thing we have internet connection, I can still work online.
Though WFH can provide less chances of contamination of virus, Field and lab studies are missing on important projects in universities. However, pending papers can be finished and published
Working from home is a challenge in itself, because we are not prepared for it. Many of us do not have the adequate offices to carry out the task. If this continues, we must know so that we adapt as soon as possible (with desk computers, printers, suitable chairs). It is difficult for now. There was and is much physical and moral pain. Many of us survive in our homes.
Good for researchers with backlogs in writing manuscripts, including people with lots of data to write on.
Bad for researchers who have to gather yet his data.
Please see this
Factors Associated with Increased Morbidity and Mortality of Obese and Overweight COVID-19 Patients
I totally agree with Siddappa Naragatti. Journals,, publishers, the scientific world in general, take a long time to respond and interact ... We all work more slowly. .