The seven “deadly traps” for an early-career researcher (from my own notebook)

Maria Rosaria Galanti is a Professor in Public Health Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. In this article, she provides her insights into the seven “deadly sins” that she feels she could have avoided as an early career researcher.

And suddenly I was full-time in research… September 1992, 38 years old and an honorable career as a Medical Doctor behind me. Three and a half years later I was a graduate, thereafter a licensed researcher and with time a respected member of one of the most prestigious medical universities in the world. All this went so quickly that I did not have the time to consider my mistakes or to complain for what I could have done better.

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The non-existent bridge between research and practice

In today’s contribution, Miriam Blikmans, research master student at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, shares some thoughts on how she has experienced the gap between the worlds of research and practice during her first year in the academic world.

How it all began

My first serious encounter with research took place while I was conducting my bachelor thesis abroad. During a period of three months, the University of Örebro in Sweden gave me the opportunity to take a look into the world of research. I learned a lot: how to come to an innovative research topic, how to conduct more advanced statistical techniques, but most of all it taught me the power of research. During my study on the effectiveness of parenting programs for children with externalizing behaviour, I found that the reduction in children’s problem behaviour was partly due to a decrease in parenting stress. Although being overall effective, not all families benefit from these programs. I thought this insight into parenting stress as a working mechanism might help increase the effectiveness of these parenting programmes and therefore it could make a difference in the lives of certain families. Of course, I was a little naive Continue reading

Why you should care about reflexivity in prevention research

In today’s post, Angelina Brotherhood, doctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, invites us to reflect on ‘why’ we conduct our research and how our own values and beliefs influence our research. She argues that being clear on research purpose and underlying values is especially important in fields such as prevention research.

As a full-time doctoral student, one of my favourite things is having the opportunity to think, read, listen, and talk about things that are not strictly project-related. Though I might receive my degree sooner if I focussed solely on ‘getting the job done’, I take the view that the doctorate is not just about completing a research project. Ultimately the doctorate (and the early career phase generally) should be about determining what kind of professional you want to be, right?

Sometimes it is worth going a bit slower but having time to breathe and look around (picture © Mike Brotherhood, used with permission)

Sometimes it is worth going a bit slower but having time to breathe and look around
(picture © Mike Brotherhood, used with permission)

In this post, I summarise where my thinking has led me thus far. I highlight some questions that I found useful and illustrate how answering them has helped me in my research. Continue reading

Early career preventionists in North America: Who are they and what do they hope for?

The EUSPR’s Early Careers Forum is not the only network for early-careers preventionists. A similar network has been existing in North America for over two decades: the Early Career Preventionist Network (ECPN). We have invited the current chair, Marie-Hélène Véronneau, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), to introduce this network and reflect on current debates and developments among early-career preventionists in North America.

In this first North American blog post, I would like to introduce the Early Career Preventionist Network (ECPN). This network is part of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR), which is more or less the North American counterpart of the European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR). ECPN is something like the “sister organization” of the EUSPR Early Careers Forum from across the Atlantic. I will first outline a brief history of ECPN and explain its structure, then I will give you an overview of who is currently involved in our steering committee, and finally I will say a few words on our hopes for the future of prevention science.

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Reflections on integrating multiple professional roles: where do I go from here?

Dijana Jerković is a practitioner, a policy-maker and a researcher in drug prevention. In this article, she introduces herself and her work, using this opportunity to reflect on the specific challenge of closing the gap between research, policy and practice at an intrapersonal level.

“Lifelong learning” and “investing time and energy in personal beliefs” are leitmotifs that have guided me through life since my childhood. As a result, today I have different professional roles, and therefore I’ve decided to write a few words about challenges that arise from this multiplicity. In line with that, in the following text I write about my experience and present it as a simplified version of a case study. Continue reading