Lynette Browning, Kirrilly Thompson and Drew Dawson
The purpose of this paper is to describe organisational strategies that support early career researchers in building a successful track record which can lead to a successful…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe organisational strategies that support early career researchers in building a successful track record which can lead to a successful academic research career.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on more than a decade of experience designing, implementing and evaluating professional development programmes for early career researchers in universities.
Findings
If an early career researcher is to achieve long-term success, the first five years after graduating with a doctorate are critical in establishing long-term career success. Professional development programmes for early career researchers are more successful if they are supported by organisational strategies around workload, performance management and accountability.
Originality/value
If implemented, these organisational strategies can assist early career researchers to build a successful track record, which can lead to a successful research career and contribute towards increasing aggregate institutional research performance for universities.
Details
Keywords
Lynette Browning, Kirrilly Thompson and Drew Dawson
The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel strategy for building research capability in a young university with an emerging research culture. Investment in building research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel strategy for building research capability in a young university with an emerging research culture. Investment in building research capacity is essential for universities to remain competitive, but one of the challenges for younger universities is developing the research capability of individuals in an emerging research culture.
Design/methodology/approach
To gain a better understanding of how leading researchers become research leaders and how universities can design strategies to attract, retain, develop and promote researchers, we carried out a study of 30 research leaders in Australia. We then designed and implemented a cohort-based career development programme for early career researchers.
Findings
From our research, and the programme we developed, we have found that developing early career researchers does not mean teaching them how to do research – it means teaching them how to build a track record, which can lead to a research career. A development programme for early career researchers is a short-term investment for longer-term returns, but these programmes do have immediate impact on research productivity for the individual researchers and for the organisation.
Practical implications
We consider the success of the Early Career Researchers Programme is due to the regular face to face workshops, the development of the research career plan and the supportive research environment provided by the me.
Originality/value
The investment in this programme clearly demonstrates the value of researcher development on research outputs and research careers. These methods could be applied to researcher development training programmes elsewhere.
Details
Keywords
Emily Brindal, Gilly Hendrie, Kirrilly Thompson and Sarah Blunden
This paper aims to describe Australian children's perceptions of healthiness and sources of health knowledge in order to develop an understanding of young children's perceptions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe Australian children's perceptions of healthiness and sources of health knowledge in order to develop an understanding of young children's perceptions, knowledge and sources of influence to guide future behaviour change and health promotion strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
One‐hour interactive focus groups were conducted in a South Australian primary school. Four small groups (n=28) of children aged five to nine participated in focus groups in which they were asked to discuss being healthy and their sources of health information as well as engaging in storying around the healthy or unhealthy behaviours of fictional characters.
Findings
Children generally perceived themselves to be healthy. Perceptions of healthiness were equated with performing positive dietary (primarily eating fruit) and physical activity behaviours. Behaviours on an unhealthy day related to being sedentary and consuming “junk foods”. Commonly cited sources of health information included family members, teachers and public health campaigns.
Practical implications
Understanding how young children perceive health behaviour and how to deliver health education appropriately to children (including who delivers these programs) could improve the efficacy of future programs targeting this group. This study offers insight into junior primary children's perceptions of healthy diet and activity behaviours and can assist in the improvement of future health interventions and programs.
Originality/value
Existing research on how younger children perceive healthiness is limited. The methods used in this study allowed the authors to explore these perceptions in a way that limited how much the topics of the conversation were predetermined.