Dear Beata, Indeed it is an interesting question and I would love to contribute.

In my opinion, not only new technologies but also new knowledge is being generated at an accelerated speed. Moreover, as I always say, it is the era of convergence or in simple words integration of knowledge and technology . Therefore, due to this convergence, you need dedicated collaborators who can contribute into your research. Moreover, time poverty is a big issue. Time slot is getting shorter and shorter due to always growing human activities. To produce a good quality research paper, one has to really good at managing time.

Dear Beata,

Frustration in research is a more common occurrence. Things will not go as expected. Remember the Murphy’s law

“Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence”

One of the most important that we suggest to our research students is the perseverance. In fact we have a way of telling the research students in India as FRS which means “Fresh Research Scholar” during his/her first year, and thereafter “Frustrated Research Scholar”.

There are many problems that we face are:

1. Finance - for equipment purchase, consumable purchase and support money for the students - all are always in short supply.

2. Change in priorities in the university

3. sometimes getting good students who have genuine interest in researching. Many join research as a stopgap arrangement to maintain visa.

Chemistry is my specialization so my contribution pertains to it but it may apply to other fields. In my opinion, the main cause of frustration for a researcher is to put himself/herself in a state of emergency, i.e. to request urgent positive results prematurely. In many cases, this attitude is due to an external pressure (such as the time limit of the research study for a postgraduate student who wants to obtain the degree in the period of the grant).

I remember a classmate who was working in a lab next to mine in the early 1980s. He was under stress most of the time. His research topic was concerned with polymeric liquid crystals. In 3 years work, the majority of the results were negative. Thanks to the constant support & encouragement of our respected teachers to him, there was a single week in which he obtained many positive results. His spirits were raised to the sky, he continued work, and he attained the Ph.D.

As for me at that time, my work was mixed; sometimes there were positive results & sometimes there were frustrating negative results. The keys for curing my frustrations were my highly respected English supervisors who were scientists as well as gentlemen.

Dear Asmat, Nageswara, Kamal and Nizar I see we share the similar frustrations however working in different paradigms.

Dear @Asmat, getting key collaborators, time, as well as good maganement are really essential factors behind frustrations. I agree.

Dear @Nageswara, I like Murphy's Laws. Frustrating factors are associated with key aspects as funding, equipment and money for students involved. Very enigmatic and interesting seems the "change in priorities of the university". I can guess only, this may be concerned with distribution of financial sources. Am I right ?

Dear @Kamal, I like research funding process at your university. At my NCU there is trend and direction for us to apply for research grants out of NCU - to National Science Center in Cracow. This is popular procedure with one inconvenience - time of waiting for announcement of results of contest. For ex. If I would apply in end of June - I would get outcomes in November. Many contests are announced mostly twice in the year, this creates more opportunities for applicants.

Dear @Nizar, thank you kindly for the story - I appreciate it. You have made also good remark about support given by wise supervisors, during the research. I agree this is very needed by younger scholars.

I'm curious what are the needs of these more experienced ?

Dear Beata

That is correct. Most of the times it relates to the funding in terms of student assistantships, equipment money and also other support mechanisms within the university.

In answer to you question dear Beata Borowska-Beszta (I'm curious what are the needs of these more experienced ?) : What I need to see in my students is more diligence & self-confidence . I become frustrated when I sense weakness or helplessness in them. Of course, I'll try a remedial process but honestly this needs collective work.

I have experienced the negative attitude of the administration as my key problem. In a country where development is supposedly the key focus, and bureaucracy is trained how to say NO, the researcher has to waste a lot of time. It is disappointing to confront or respond to that negative attitude so as to proceed with the work, which is often disappointing. The only hope you can rely on is your personal relationship building to have your file moved. Also, there is too much work load of other activities; so the time at the disposal of the researcher gets reduced.

Agree with Debi! Even if our objective is to conduct purely research without any need for benefits from it, there are factors on which our research depends. There are various problems, significant ones being;

-Negative attitude of the administration

-Financial assistance

-Sometimes assistance is available but delayed because of unknown reasons

-Human emotions

-Other factors, which though necessary, are not concerned directly with research and are time consuming.

Dear All,

I have also observed that main problem for most researchers is lack of adequate funding. This is especially true when the experimental research is conducted.

The main frustrations I have experience are:

1. When students priorities change and they lose their motivation.

2. When colleagues/students do not adhere to research ethics.

Dear @Ahed, I agree, that scientists should not be frustrated, but the realities are manifesting different facts. You have highlighted great issue as: lack of confidence in designing new lines of the researches, associated with (prior experiences ?) and key answer of promotion. Promotion as process is frustrating indeed, even a few months after. From my experience 4., as unpleasant side effect filled with frustrating helplesness in projects design, paper writing etc. Fortunately it has gone. Thank you for the nice words.

Dear @Debi, I almost feel under my skin, this unpleasant context of what you mean by sentence "trained to say NO" as a behavior pattern of bureaucratic administration. This may be much frustrating for the researcher, who is willing to conduct scientific work.

In such situations there are contrary messages involved, from the people governing finances: as to encourage scientific research, while the information transmitted by the bureaucracy is negative. It is really frustrating - a stalemate. I agree.

P.S. Dear @Debi, you once have shared quote about being thankful to the people who said NO. I agree - it could be also source of positive motivation.

Dear @Jaya, thank you for wide spectrum of sources of our frustrations, associated with general categories as: delays while scientific work and coping with human emotions.

Dear @Behrouz, you have made essential remark, concerned sustaining the motivation and ethics while having students in the research team. From my experience: I noticed during 12 months of the qualitative research, regular lowering of perseverance in students involved. They awaited rather quick qutcomes in entire research process, much time consuming.

Dear Beata,

There is an external frustration which the researcher may face while conducting her/his research. The low response rate when using the questionnare as a research instrument.

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There are frustration problems as described by our colleagues above. One frustration problem that I have is the "out of channel problem". If your research is not on the main stream you are going to be ignored!

Dear @Mahfuz and dear @Costas, you have indicated the frustrating moments having universal value and experienced probably world wide.

Dear @Mahfuz it is very frustrating indeed, having low response rate in questionnaires,

Dear @Costas, yes I agree completely that, scientists choosing "own channel" can be ignored or marginalized. I suppose, sometimes needed is only the proper time, which naturally changes options of understandings in academias or in broader contexts. It happens. The more frustrating is, if not.

Dear Michelle, thak you for point of view of young scholar. The problems of scientific "invisibility" may be also associated with lack of publishing in international journals in English. Some of them me too) preferred for years to write the books, than short reports in English. We do have in Poland similar problems too, having low IF as international measure and books in Polish as scientific achievements. Maybe translations would be good ideas.