久保 京子
A study of research environment for students and young researchers in life sciences :
A web survey and an interview survey of young researchers’ associations
Kyoko Kubo
April, 2021
Abstract
The aim of this study is to clarify the cause and effect of overwork (long working hours and staying in a lab late at night) of students and young researchers in the natural sciences. A web survey and an interview survey of the members of young researchers’ associations in the life sciences were conducted. From the web survey the following were found. In the life science field, students and researchers who make a cell biological experiment tend to overwork themselves. Offhand works (experiments without a solid plan) cause long working hours and non-research works cause staying in a lab late at night. Overwork affects sleeping time and work-life balance, but not the health condition or the frequency of communicaction with other researchers. From the interview survey, the following were found. Offhand work is influenced by the nature of the experiments, the intervention of the PI and so on. Some researchers have upset their health due to overwork, even though the correlation between overwork and health condition was not pointed in the web survey.
