Hi! I am a PhD student affiliated with the Medical Anthropology Research Center of Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). I have been interested in IGDORE since I was an undergraduate student. Back then I was lucky enough to work as a research assistant for a couple of professors from Stanford Law School and The Geneva Graduate Institute. Now my research project is funded by the Spanish government via one of the most competitive grants in the country.
The issue at hand is, I don’t understand what are the requisites to become an affiliate with IGDORE. Back when I was an undergraduate / master’s student I just assume I wasn’t “good enough” to be considered a researcher, and thus admitted. But I don’t get why I am also being rejected now, and why the process seems so random and lacking transparency.
For an organization intended to support independent researchers that may be working outside academia / following different learning and practicing paths, and devoted to encourage and support open science practices, this all seems a bit odd.
I know IGDORE has had bad experiences with people abusing the affiliation to publish plagiarized content, etc, and screening is necessary, but I think values like openness, fairness and transparency should be guiding principles of the process.
Just posting this message because I share the values expressed in the mission statement of IGDORE, and care for initiatives like yours to flourish and prosper. I don’t really need the affiliation for any practical purpose. I just want to show support, and can do it without being an affiliate. I just hope it will help others that can really benefit from it.
As I am in charge of screening affiliation requests, I might be the best one to give you an answer here.
I believe, in your particlar case, there has been a misunderstanding. Within IGDORE Global Board, we are currently discussing ways to restructure member categories, affiliation requirements and how to make the process more straightforward and less heavy in terms of administration. Because of this ongoing discussions, we have decided to put on hold affiliation requests from individuals not holding a PhD (or equivalent) or not enrolled in a PhD program until January 2021 (possibly a couple of months later if we run late). This is because, while there is a consensus on considering indivuduals who completed a PhD as “researchers” and other involved in a PhD project as “researchers in training”, the same is not true for other profiles (e.g. can somebody who doesn’t hold any academic title but has been involved in research for many yeas still be considered a “researcher in training”?).
In your particural case, you presented yourself as “predotocoral researcher”. As such, I thought you were not enrolled in a PhD program. I kindly asked you to get back in touch during the following months, once this restructuring is done (and also said that we can consider your particular case if there is an urgency to get an institutional affiliation). You answered to me saying that you are actually enrolled in a PhD program. As such, you are entitled to proceed with the affiliation process. Unfortunately, as we all work on a volunteering basis, my answer to you was delayed a couple of days (I am actually answering here because I opened the forum before the emails).
Regarding the percevied randomness and lack of transparency: the requirements for affiliates are clearly stated in IGDOREs affiliation page. We are currently working on a new page that will incorporate some changes to the affiliation process (such as a application form) and to the services that IGDORE can provide at the moment to affiliates. In the new page, there will be a temporary update about the impossibility to accept individuals not holding a PhD or not enrolled in a PhD program until further notice (hopefully soon enough). Again, as we work on a volunterring basis, the webpage is not updated yet (I hope it will be on the website by the end of the month).
Apart from this, I would like to know if you think there are other issues that determine a lack of transparency in IGDOREs affiliation process. So please let us know.
Since this is a public post, I also invite other members and not to speak about issues they encountered during applying for affiliation or after being accepted (if any).
@EnricGTorrents, my sincere apologies, this shouldn’t have happened. It is obvious from a quick check at your website that you do belong to our target group and thus should be accepted as a Researcher in Training. This was solely our mistake, you did everything right. Thank you for bringing our mistake to our attention, and I especially appreciate that you posted publicly about it so that (1) others who may have experienced similar (or other) issues with our affiliation process may dare to point it out to us, and (2) we can take responsibility publicly for the mistake.
A warm thank you for your interest in IGDORE and for following us.
And now, finally, I recall why I was under the impression that you @EnricGTorrents were already affiliated with IGDORE: you were one of our early research assistants and have thus been a member of IGDORE for several years already. I really appreciate that and am very glad to see that you now have decided to join us as a Researcher in Training. I hope our mistake hasn’t changed your decision.
Thanks for telling about Medical Anthropology Research Center) You have a very interesting field of activity, and the research programs that you described are also very interesting. I am now also engaged in the study of medicine from the point of view of medical behaviour of no non-maleficence, I have read a lot of articles and studies about this and read also free examples of an essay) By the way, it turned out to be very useful, here Beneficence vs. Non-maleficence: [Essay Example], 642 words GradesFixer I found a post where this issue is very easily considered. Moreover, it is compared with beneficence, therefore, these concepts become clearer)
Just noticed this old post, happy to be formally affiliated with IGDORE now! I understand checks and filters are needed, that is a big issue as: who are the peers in peer review. In mental health, my area of research, kind of also happens: who is to be considered a peer in peer support groups, how to set the boundaries and limits. Who belongs, who needs in and how to keep others out hopefully without harming nor one way neither the other. How do those explicit or implicit agreements and rules affect the community and its outcome, by being in place or for the lack of mechanisms to ensure all works as it intended and the goals are achieved. Anyhow, a slight digression. Posting to say glad to be part of the institue, and thanks for organizing the community!
And I agree that setting boundaries on IGDORE membership can and has been difficult. We don’t want to act as the gatekeepers of doing research (e.g. saying people need a PhD to join), but at the same time, we want to make sure that IGDORE affiliates will do reputable and good quality research. And we are all volunteers, so we don’t have the time available to consider applications carefully like a university hiring committee would.
Thankfully, this got easier when we changed our membership application last year to require that new affiliates demonstrate their commitment to open science (as an indication that they would comply with our CoRC). It’s now usually quite clear (to us) who meets the membership criteria, although we may be able to improve how we communicate it what the criteria to meet are. Maybe @Enrico.Fucci wants to comment as well?
I understand checks and filters are needed, that is a big issue as: who are the peers in peer review. In mental health, my area of research, kind of also happens: who is to be considered a peer in peer support groups, how to set the boundaries and limits. Who belongs, who needs in and how to keep others out hopefully without harming nor one way neither the other. How do those explicit or implicit agreements and rules affect the community and its outcome, by being in place or for the lack of mechanisms to ensure all works as it intended and the goals are achieved. Anyhow, a slight digression. Posting to say glad to be part of the institue, and thanks for organizing the community!