Career Guide 06 March 2019

Fieldwork

Working in the field presents unique problems for researchers. Scientists must learn how to navigate cultural differences, safety issues and geographic barriers when they go into the field, alongside their usual data-collection and analysis responsibilities. Check out Nature’s collection on fieldwork for help, advice and coverage of these issues.

Articles

Science on the edge: how extreme outdoor skills enhanced our fieldwork

Researchers describe how they developed extraordinary physical skills for their research and how to stay calm in the face of risks.
- Shihab Jamal
Career Feature15 Jul 2024 Nature
It’s time to talk about menstruation and fieldwork

Cringing colleagues can be an occupational hazard when pre-trip discussions cover periods — others welcome frank conversations.
- Cameron Walker
Career Feature14 Jun 2024 Nature
How researchers in remote regions handle the isolation

Recruitment challenges and limited resources are among the challenges faced by scientists who live and work off the beaten track.
- Chris Woolston
Career Feature24 May 2024 Nature
Breaking ice, and helicopter drops: winning photos of working scientists

Nature’s annual photography competition attracted stunning images from around the world, including two very different shots featuring the Polarstern research vessel.
- Jack Leeming
Career Feature23 Apr 2024 Nature
Why a climate researcher pushed the limits of low-carbon travel — and his employer’s patience

A refusal to fly to Papua New Guinea for fieldwork took Gianluca Grimalda the long way across 22,000 kilometres and 12 countries.
- Christine Ro
Career Feature8 Nov 2023 Nature
I train farmers to use plant science in the fight against climate change

Plant breeder and geneticist Prince Matova helps farmers in drought-prone areas to increase their yields.
- Clemence Manyukwe
Career Q&A15 Sep 2023 Nature
Children on fieldwork: how two scientist mothers made it happen

We both struggled with the idea of juggling our families and field teams — but we found good reasons to keep pursuing our goals.
- Verónica Laura Lozano
- María Laura Sánchez
Career Column1 Aug 2023 Nature
Conservation setbacks? The secrets to lifting morale

Endangered-species specialist Jim Groombridge describes how to lead a conservation field team, even when the species in question disappears.
- Sarah Wild
Career Q&A13 Jan 2023 Nature
Keep talking to make fieldwork a true team effort

Communication is important across science, but special steps are needed when taking part in research away from the lab, says Anna Osiecka.
- Anna Osiecka
Career Column12 Dec 2022 Nature
Treading carefully: saving frankincense trees in Yemen

Conservation biologist Kay Van Damme works with locals on the Socotra archipelago to help save ancient trees and colourful invertebrates.
- Shihab Jamal
Career Q&A30 Aug 2022 Nature
How Colombian coffee farmers helped my climate-change research

Community engagement enabled Jessica Eise to boost the relevance of her research. Here are her six tips for how to do this.
- Jessica Eise
Career Column19 Jul 2022 Nature
My work digging up the shelters of our ancestors

Ludovic Slimak, a cultural anthropologist at the CNRS and the University of Toulouse — Jean Jaurès, describes his research and the changing face of archaeology in France.
- Nic Fleming
Career Q&A8 Jun 2022 Nature
How local communities helped polar scientists during the pandemic

Erica Gillis describes the strong connections with residents that helped her colleagues keep working when they couldn’t travel.
- Nikki Forrester
Career Q&A1 Oct 2021 Nature
Pandemic upheaval offers a huge natural experiment

The disruption that the coronavirus has caused to daily life has created unique research opportunities for scientists.
- Julia Rosen
Career Feature2 Aug 2021 Nature
What polar researchers have learnt from the pandemic

Six scientists explain how COVID-19 has affected their fieldwork and research, as well as opportunities for junior researchers.
- Nikki Forrester
Career Feature6 Jul 2021 Nature
Fieldwork at your fingertips: creative methods for social research under lockdown

With face-to-face interviews on hold, social scientists are turning to digital diaries and deep dives into YouTube audience interactions instead.
- Ash Watson
- Marianne Clark
- Deborah Lupton
Career Column3 Mar 2021 Nature
How to put societal impact at the heart of your research

Global-health researcher Joshua Vogel describes challenges in maternal and newborn health and how to translate research into practice.
- Nikki Forrester
Career Q&A27 Jan 2021 Nature
How to manage when your fieldwork is cancelled

As COVID-19 restrictions continue to upend plans for data collection, scientists stuck at home are finding innovative ways to adapt their research questions. Here’s what they’re doing.
- Nikki Forrester
Career Feature27 Nov 2020 Nature
Flying low and slow over endangered whales

US federal biologist Christin Khan embraces risk above the Atlantic Ocean to monitor a rare species.
- Madeline Bodin
Where I Work23 Jun 2020 Nature
Therapy at the bench

Psychiatrist Dixon Chibanda trains teams of grandmothers to provide open-air counselling sessions in Zimbabwe.
- Chris Woolston
Where I Work16 Jun 2020 Nature
Pulling back layers of history, culture and identity

Aboriginal archaeologist Chris Wilson retraces the steps of the Ngarrindjeri people in South Australia.
- Josie Glausiusz
Where I Work9 Jun 2020 Nature
In splendid isolation: the research voyages that prepared us for the pandemic

Scientists with fieldwork experience in remote areas share stories of social isolation, staying positive and eking out supplies.
- Carrie Arnold
Career Feature14 May 2020 Nature
Fighting fire with science

Wildfires are becoming more and more frequent around the world, making expertise in the field a hot commodity.
- Stav Dimitropoulos
Career Q&A4 Dec 2019 Nature
Q&A: gender, race and field trips in South African anthropology

Nomawethu Hlazo, a PhD student in archaeology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, speaks to Nature about her experiences.
- Linda Nordling
Career Q&A3 Oct 2019 Nature
Polar research should include Indigenous perspectives

Pat Wongpan explains why polar research must incorporate diverse views, including those of Indigenous peoples and communities affected by climate change.
- Virginia Gewin
Career Q&A18 Sep 2019 Nature
How those researching adaptation to climate change might reduce their own carbon footprints

Scientists who work with communities most affected by climate change might find it hard to adjust their air-travel habits, but they can still make meaningful changes, says David Samuel Williams.
- David Samuel Williams
Career Column16 Sep 2019 Nature
A fieldwork flop needn’t be a disaster

Lots of things can and will go wrong in the field, but there are ways to rescue the work and learn from your mishaps.
- Emily Sohn
Career Feature11 Sep 2018 Nature
Put safety first

Junior researchers must know how to navigate dangers in the field, says Elizabeth Orr.
- Elizabeth Orr
Career Column28 Nov 2017 Nature
A photo celebration of scientists at work

In this year’s contest, Nature follows scientists from starry Antarctic fields to African volcanic plains.
- Jack Leeming
Career Feature25 Apr 2018 Nature
Fieldwork: Extreme research

Cavers, divers and climbers take their science to strange and wonderful places.
- Emily Sohn
Feature13 Jan 2016 Nature
Fieldwork: The great outdoors

Field stations offer sophisticated facilities and opportunities for large-scale research.
- Roberta Kwok
Feature13 Nov 2013 Nature
Outside the lab: Field your A Team

Life in the field can be gruelling — and so it is up to team leaders to turn the research grind into an adventurous and valuable experience for everyone.
- Kendall Powell
Feature16 Mar 2017 Nature
Fieldwork: Close quarters

Cramped living conditions, unruly colleagues or crowded schedules can be challenging for the most intrepid scientist.
- Lucas Laursen
Feature15 Jun 2011 Nature
Health and safety: Danger zone

Fieldwork often involves significant threats to safety.
- Emily Sohn
Feature12 Jan 2017 Nature
Out of the lab and into the field

Decision scientists have identified remedies for various cognitive biases that distort climate-change risk perceptions. Researchers must now use the same empirical methods to identify strategies for reproducing — in the tumult of the real world — results forged in the tranquillity of their labs.
- Dan M. Kahan
- Katherine Carpenter
Commentary28 Apr 2017 Nature Climate Change
Hail local fieldwork, not just global models
- Catarina Ferreira
- C. Antonio Ríos-Saldaña
- Miguel Delibes-Mateos
Correspondence15 Jun 2016 Nature
Collaborations: Partners in knowledge

Building relationships with indigenous people opens up paths to good research — and mutual benefit.
- Gabriel Popkin
Feature27 Jul 2016 Nature
Women scientists sexually harassed while doing fieldwork

Working out in the field sounds like a scientist's dream, but women in particular may encounter harassment
- Anna Simmonds
News19 Jul 2014 Nature
Photography: Science on camera

Announcing the winners of the inaugural Scientist at Work photo competition.
- Jack Leeming
Feature4 May 2017 Nature

Fieldwork

Articles

Videos

Search

Quick links