Elsevier Releases Findings From Global Survey of 3200 Researchers; Less Than Half Have Time to Do Research But See AI as Transformative If Given Right Tools

From Elsevier:

Elsevier today shared the results of its global Researcher of the Future survey, offering fresh insights into how researchers view the rapidly evolving research landscape.

[Clip]

Drawing on insights from more than 3,200 academic and corporate researchers across 113 countries, the report highlights widening regional differences in researcher attitudes, evolving views on mobility, and a shift in how researchers see their own role in a changing world.

[Clip]

Researchers face greater pressure but are committed to upholding integrity

Researchers face increasing pressure from a fast-growing volume of information, administrative and teaching demands, uncertainty over funding and pressure to publish. Together, these factors are eroding the time researchers can dedicate to conducting research and potentially impeding their career progression. Despite the pressures, researchers remain uncompromising in their commitment to quality and maintaining research integrity.

• Only 45% agree they have sufficient time for research

• Just 33% expect funding in their field to increase in the next two to three years, with optimism lowest in North America and Europe

• 68% say the pressure to publish their research is greater than two to three years ago

• 74% say peer-reviewed research is trustworthy and view peer-review as important to research integrity, building trust and broadening impact.

Researchers rapidly adopt AI but need support

Researchers see AI as transformative for their work and adoption is accelerating rapidly:

• 58% now use AI tools in their work, compared with 37% in 2024

• However, only 32% of researchers globally believe there is good AI governance at their institution

• Similarly, just 27% believe they have adequate training in using AI.

Regional variations in researchers’ confidence in AI

Researchers’ confidence in AI tools is diverging across regions, particularly between China, the US, and the UK. In China, 68% of researchers think AI tools give them more choice versus 29% in the US and 26% in the UK. Further, when it comes to believing AI empowers them, 64% of Chinese researchers agree versus just 25% in the US and 24% in the UK. The gap is also clear in how researchers view AI’s potential:

• To save research time: 79% in China vs. 54% in the US, and 57% in the UK

• To improve quality of work: 60% in China vs. 22% in the US, and 17% in the UK

• To accelerate discovery: 49% in China vs. 30% in the US, and 26% in the UK.

Where researchers find the most value in AI

Most researchers (58%) say AI tools currently save them time, although they are selective about where they see the greatest impact. Researchers are currently using AI tools to:

• Find and summarize the latest research (61%)

• Perform literature reviews (51%)

• Analyze research data (38%)

• Draft grant proposals (41%)

• Draft research papers or reports (38%).

Researchers are less inclined to use generic AI tools for creative tasks like generating hypotheses or designing studies. However, those who recognize AI’s benefits are more likely to use a secure, researcher-customized, reliable AI assistant for these purposes.

Researchers are looking for trust markers to increase their confidence in AI

Despite the rise in AI use, researchers are concerned about ethics and reliability.

• Less than a quarter (23%) of respondents globally believe AI tools are ethically developed, compared to 38% who think they are unethically developed.

• Similarly, 22% of respondents believe AI tools are currently trustworthy, compared to 39% who say they are unreliable

• Just 7% of US and UK researchers think AI will increase trust in research compared to 20% in China.

Researchers point to the following factors to increase confidence in using an AI tool for their work:

• Transparency: automatically cites references (59%)

• Recency: AI’s training data includes the most up-to-date scholarly literature (55%)

• Safety: explicitly trained for factual accuracy and safety (55%)

• Quality: trained on high-quality peer-reviewed content (55%)

• Validation: outputs regularly reviewed by human experts (49%).

Pessimism about funding is a key factor in appetite to relocate

Nearly one third (29%) of researchers are considering moving countries (down 5 percentage points since 2022), driven by a desire for better funding, work-life balance, and freedom to pursue research interests.

• Only 33% of researchers expect a funding increase in the next two to three years with researchers significantly less optimistic in the US at 9% and higher in China at 44%

• 49% of those researchers who are considering moving countries cite funding as a key reason

• Top destinations for those considering moving are Canada (27%), Germany (26%) and the US (26%)

• 40% of US researchers would consider moving in the next two to three years to further their career – up by 16 percentage points compared to 2022 and significantly higher than the global number (29%)

• In contrast, only 13% of Chinese researchers would consider moving – down 22 percentage points compared to 2022.

Interdisciplinary and cross-border collaboration is trending higher

• 63% of researchers globally see more collaboration among researchers compared to prior years (68% among Asia Pacific researchers, 55% in North America, and 59% in Europe).

• Among researchers who see more collaboration than previously, 68% are collaborating more with researchers from other disciplines, 53% with researchers in other countries.

Learn More, Read the Complete Release

Resources

• Researcher of the Future — a Confidence in Research Report
  44 pages; PDF.
• Direct to Infographic
• Direct to Databook
• Direct to Industry Focused Analyses

Filed under: Data Files, Elsevier, Funding, Journal Articles, News, Reports