Many university researchers belong to research groups, yet little is known about what makes a research group effective or how they benefit members in terms of developing their capacity to produce high-quality research. This project seeks to examine research groups and their members in order to determine the factors that contribute to an effective research group and to collective as well as individual development within those groups.
For the purposes of this project, we use a broad definition of research groups. Research groups
include any group that engage in research activities as a collective. These activities might include reading groups/circles, peer review, research projects or reflections on research endeavors. These groups may be part of an institution, through internal or external funding, or may exist separately from an institutional structure.
Based on established contacts, this study will be conducted as parallel studies focusing on two regional areas, Australia and the Nordic countries, with similar aims and research questions The Australian study is conducted at Charles Sturt University, Australia. The Swedish one at Karlstad University, Sweden. The fact that these two studies are carried out around the same time and with similar aims, research questions, and methodology and data construction tools creates opportunities for regional in-depth knowledge and understanding as well as international comparisons.
Some argue that research groups (Ion & Del Mar Duran Belloch, 2013) and networks (Heffernan, 2021) are the key to an academic’s career success, with other research suggesting that the support offered in the first five years significantly influences an individual’s career trajectory (Browning et al., 2014).
Previous research has examined the functioning of research groups (Park et al., 2017), the size and composition of research groups (Joshi, 2014) and leadership in research groups (Ion & Del Mar Duran Belloch, 2013; Vebree et al., 2012). Most research focuses on case study groups, how they function and the particular practices that are made possible within them (c.f. Degn, 2018; Mahon et al., 2018). There are also reports of research groups as a method to speak back to, or work within the constraints of, the neoliberal institutions’ metric driven and individualizing nature (Degn, 2018; Mahon et al., 2018).
Research groups have been investigated in many countries including Australia (Mahon et al., 2018), Spain (Ion & Del Mar Duran Belloch, 2013), Denmark (Degn, 2018) and the Netherlands (Degn, 2018). In Australia, there is little research that has explored the functioning of research groups or the factors that make them effective; rather, most studies have focused on the benefits of the group for members (c.f. Larsen et al., 2023; Mahon et al., 2018). Given the Australian research context is slightly different to that of the Nordic countries, with its hyperfocus on productivity and performative metrics, it is important and timely to consider the functioning of research groups in Australia and in the Nordic countries and what role they play for individual researchers.
By examining members’ experiences, research groups can develop targeted strategies to support their members and build research capability. Likewise, institutions will benefit by having qualitative data in relation to the effectiveness of research groups, which may assist with policy and funding decisions.
The research questions are:
1. What factors contribute to effective research groups?
2. Why do researchers belong to research groups?
3. How do researchers define a high-quality research group?

This qualitative study will utilize a range of data collection and analysis methods based on a two-phase approach, as follows: Phase 1: Research group member perspectives. The initial phase of the project will survey members of research groups in terms of their perceptions about the effectiveness of the group(s) to which they belong, as well as about their own research careers. An online qualitative survey consisting of multiple choice and open-ended questions will be used. The data will be analysed based on the following membership groupings: higher degree by research student members, early career researcher members, middle career researcher members and established researcher members. Phase 2: Research group functioning. Based on the findings of Phase 1, this phase of the project will utilize document analysis of policies, meeting minutes and other sources to build a picture of how research groups function. Phase 2 will also use in-depth interviews to determine how the functioning of research groups impacts members and their perceptions as to why this is the case, as well as look at the benefits to members of belonging to a research group. Data will be drawn from the responses to a range of semi-structured open-ended questions asked of participants. Zoom/Teams will be utilized to conduct interviews as these are familiar means of communication. The Phase 1 data collection will be a qualitative survey, targeted at any social sciences researcher in Australia and in the Nordic countries who is a member of a research group. The researchers will utilize convenience sampling to distribute the survey outside their own universities, by sending the information to their networks and posting about the survey on social media (such as Twitter/X and LinkedIn). Using snowball sampling, respondents will be asked to send the survey to others in their own network. Phase 1 will commence in February 2024, and this presentation will address the initial findings from this stage. The findings from Phase 1 will inform the development of interview questions for Phase 2. In Phase 2 it is anticipated that between 20 and 25 participants may be interviewed and that up to 10 research groups will provide documents for analysis. NVIVO software will be used for data analysis and it will be based on the thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2015). Thematic analysis was chosen as it can be applied in different ways to address different research questions.

The research aims to qualify the value of research groups to members as well as to universities. Publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at research conferences will disseminate the findings. While it is difficult to determine prior to data collection, expected outcomes from the survey in phase 1 will hopefully include a broad overview of factors that researchers think contribute to effective research groups. This will allow us to probe more deeply into these factors in the second phase of the project, and perhaps give us the opportunity to explore what enables and constrains the development of these factors for research groups. Similarly, the overview provided by the survey into the various reasons why researchers belong to research groups, and their interpretations of ‘quality’ of research groups will enable us to delve into these reasons in more detail in Phase 2. An important aspect of this research is that it is a parallel project between a research group at Karlstad University, Sweden (SOL), and Charles Sturt University, Australia (PPLE). Part of the value in this project will be the development of a greater understanding of approaches used in each research group and learning from each other.

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