Academic bullying is too often ignored. Here are some targets’ stories

Academic bullying in peer reviews is a cultural problem. This Editorial Note is intended to identify the unhelpful comments/critiques and to highlight the impact of unprofessional peer reviews toward the well-being and career development of fellow researchers. We acknowledge that we are part of the problems, and the necessary steps are needed to break the chain of the academic bullying culture in peer reviews. New guidelines for editors and reviewers are part of the solutions to promote constructive comments, as well as stronger internal consolidation throughout the peer reviews process. Perundungan akademik dalam penilaian sejawat (peer review) adalah sebuah permasalahan kultur. Catatan Editorial ini bertujuan mengindentifikasi komentar atau kritik yang tidak membangun, serta menggarisbawahi dampak penilaian sejawat yang tidak profesional terhadap kesejahteraan dan pengembangan karir sesama peneliti. Kami menyadari bahwa kami merupakan bagian dari permasalahan ini, dan diperlukan langkah-langkah untuk memutus rantai kultur perundungan akademik dalam penilaian sejawat. Pedoman baru bagi editor dan mitra bestari merupakan bagian dari solusi untuk mendorong komentar yang konstruktif, serta konsolidasi internal yang lebih kuat dalam proses penilaian sejawat.

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Mentoring: Academic Bullying in Disguise

BULLYING: An assault on human dignity ◽

10.1163/9781848881020_006 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 43-51

Keyword(s):

Academic Bullying

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Improve reporting systems for academic bullying

Nature ◽

10.1038/d41586-018-07154-x ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 562 (7728) ◽

pp. 494-494 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Morteza Mahmoudi

Keyword(s):

Reporting Systems ◽

Academic Bullying

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The urgent need for modification of scientific ranking indexes to facilitate scientific progress and diminish academic bullying

Bioimpacts ◽

10.15171/bi.2019.30 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 5-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Morteza Mahmoudi ◽

Saya Ameli ◽

Sherry Moss

Keyword(s):

Financial Distress ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Scientific Progress ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

H Index ◽

Root Cause ◽

Abusive Behavior ◽

Junior Staff ◽

Academic Bullying ◽

Verbal Insults

Academic bullying occurs when senior scientists direct abusive behavior such as verbal insults, public shaming, isolation, and threatening toward vulnerable junior colleagues such as postdocs, graduate students and lab members. We believe that one root cause of bullying behavior is the pressure felt by scientists to compete for rankings designed to measure their scientific worth. These ratings, such as the h-index, have several unintended consequences, one of which we believe is academic bullying. Under pressure to achieve higher and higher rankings, in exchange for positive evaluations, grants and recognition, senior scientists exert undue pressure on their junior staff in the form of bullying. Lab members have little or no recourse due to the lack of fair institutional protocols for investigating bullying, dependence on grant or institutional funding, fear of losing time and empirical work by changing labs, and vulnerability to visa cancellation threats among international students. We call for institutions to reconsider their dependence on these over-simplified surrogates for real scientific progress and to provide fair and just protocols that will protect targets of academic bullying from emotional and financial distress.

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Academic Bullying: Taking the Hallway Chats to the Level of Formalized Policy

Kinesiology Review ◽

10.1123/kr.2019-0042 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 318-322 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Karen S. Meaney ◽

Sonya L. Armstrong

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Policy Development ◽

Workplace Bullying ◽

Higher Education Institutions ◽

Institutional Policies ◽

University Campuses ◽

Policy Review ◽

Academic Bullying ◽

Adult Bullying

Bullying in any context adversely affects individuals and organizations. Although bullying is typically conceived of as an issue specific to children in schoolyards, adult bullying is widespread, and the literature on workplace bullying continues to emerge as a scholarly focus. More specifically, academic bullying in higher-education institutions has been identified as an area of particular interest. Considerable literature exists that addresses definitions, characteristics, and effects of faculty bullying; however, the literature is scant regarding effective practice and policy that explicitly aim to prevent academic bullying. Furthermore, although this is a topic often discussed informally on university campuses, it does not appear to be addressed explicitly in formalized institutional policies. In this manuscript, the authors provide the findings of the initial stages of a content analysis aimed at exploring extant policy at public doctoral-granting universities. Implications and recommendations for policy development based on the results of this policy review are provided.

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