For researchers

There Are More and More Avenues of Support for Researchers Facing Coordinated Campaigns of Intimidation and Harassment. We’ve Compiled Many of Them for You Here.

When the important research you conduct puts you at risk for intimidation and harassment, it can feel isolating and lonely. But it’s not your fault.

And you are not alone.

There is a growing community of researchers and their supporters who are working together to shed light on the problem and produce resources for support.

Though this website focuses on shifting the responsibility for action from individuals to institutions (after all, the intimidation researchers are facing is an occupational hazard), we have also compiled a list of resources and suggested actions for researchers themselves.

Here are a few starting points that might guide your thinking and next steps.

Enlist the support of your institution.

• Start the conversation now. Meet with the highest level administrators at your institution that you think appropriate to discuss external intimidation and harassment. It might begin with a PhD supervisor or department chair, but if deans and provosts can be meaningfully engaged, all the better.
• Provide context. Share information that describes the landscape, prevalence, and effects of occupational abuse. It can be helpful to explain that the perpetrators are typically not engaging in good faith and often seek to undermine higher education and science.

• Ask for support. Ask your administrator to prepare a “holding statement” of support that can be used if necessary. Ask to review the statement and offer constructive feedback.
• Offer building blocks of support. Direct your institution’s administrators to our resources page, where they will find our toolkit, which offers extensive, practical guidance to prepare for and respond to attacks on researchers.

Build your community.

• Ask for statements of support. In addition to your employer, there is a community ready to support you and it’s important to connect with members of that community early. Make a list of allied people or organizations that would be willing to put out a statement of support if needed. You can also ask them to prepare a “holding statement” just in case.
• Find strength in numbers. Connect with other people doing similar work and be proactive about building a supportive community. Keep each other informed about what is happening in the landscape of your work.

• Talk to your friends and family about your work and the possibility of backlash. Share more information with your colleagues or loved ones regarding the scope of the problem and how and why this type of abuse happens, highlighting a few case studies as examples. Let them know that you may be susceptible to targeted harassment because of your research and explain to them what that could entail. While researchers naturally want to shield their loved ones, having proactive conversations may make it easier for those you care about to respond with a clearer picture of both the risks at hand and the ways in which they can help, should that become necessary.