Promoting a Safe, Equitable, and Professional Research Environment

Students and research trainees, especially if new to an institution, may be unfamiliar with the expectations of equitable and professional workplaces or unfamiliar with the local institutional culture. Furthermore, while experienced in recognizing unprofessional behaviors in research environments and aware of its disruptive and unproductive impact, faculty may be oblivious to the important role they play as mentors in setting the right tone and modeling professional behavior within the lab. Some common examples of poor professional behaviors include missed project deadlines, being consistently late or unprepared for meetings, gossiping at work. But there are other unprofessional behaviors that can have long term negative consequences on careers, productivity, scientific integrity, and institutional reputation like treating coworkers with disrespect, harassment or bias based on how someone identifies in the world, poor supervision or lab management, taking undue credit, sabotaging a colleague’s work, etc. The promotion of a safe and equitable research and learning environment is a core value that should be embraced and implemented in ways that are transparent to all. It is understandable that early career scientists can be unprepared for, or anxious in a competitive research environment. In this panel discussion, we explored different perceptions of professional behavior in collaborative environments and discussed what constitutes professionalism in research. We looked at where we have been in the last twenty years, the realities of where we are today, and where we hope to go in our global efforts to promote a safe, equitable, and professional research environment