Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on animal behaviour and welfare researchers

  • Key finding:

    The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many changes in the way research is conducted. Some specific groups, such as women and early career research, and activities, such as animal experiments and teaching, may have been disproportionally affected. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on animal behaviour and welfare researchers’ work experience and productivity, focussing on gender, care role, career stage and teaching load. An online survey asked researchers about childcare, research and teaching load and associated changes due to the pandemic, among others, and included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviours (ISSB). The outcomes of the survey showed that while some benefited from working from home, others had major difficulties to do their normal or planned work. Overall, caregivers and early career researchers faced the most difficulties, and personality traits had a major impact on the ability to cope with the changes caused by the pandemic.

Links to Open Access Publications or DOI:


Citation:

Camerlink, I., Nielsen, B. L., Windschnurer, I., & Vigors, B. (2021). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on animal behaviour and welfare researchers. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 236, 105255.