Study title

The Zurich Survey of Academics is a large-scale and representative web survey among scientists at universities in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria (DACH region). The survey was conducted in 2020 and includes N=15,778 scientists from 263 universities. The survey is motivated by recent developments, such as the significant increase of team work in science and problems of how to organize fair and sustainable collaborations. It also reflects recent discussions around the replication crisis, problems of scientific integrity, and the apparently increasing pressures in scientific work. The aim of this survey is to obtain in-depth insights into the everyday work of researchers in the DACH region and to learn how researchers deal with conflicts and increasing pressure to publish, with a focus on different kinds of selfish and altruistic behavior, scientific misconduct, and social norms about collaboration, such as authorship order. The Zurich Survey of Academics is part of the larger-scale SNSF Starting Grant CONCISE, BSSGI0-155981 “Social Norms, Cooperation and Conflict in Scientific Collaborations”.