IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/metaar/52ezd.html

Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges

Author

Listed:
  • Aczel, Balazs

    (Eotvos Lorand University)

  • Kovacs, Marton
  • van der Lippe, Tanja
  • Szaszi, Barnabas

Abstract

The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics’ efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and challenges of working from home on a level of personal experience. In this study, we surveyed academics while working from home and found that the pandemic lockdown decreased the work efficiency for almost half of the researchers but around a quarter of them were more efficient during this time compared to the time before. Based on the gathered personal experience, 70% of the researchers think that in the future they would be similarly or more efficient than before if they could spend more of their work-time at home. They indicated that in the office they are better at sharing thoughts with colleagues, keeping in touch with their team, and collecting data, whereas at home they are better at working on their manuscript, reading the literature, and analysing their data. Taking well-being also into account, 66% of them would find it ideal to work more from home in the future than they did before the lockdown. These results draw attention to how working from home is becoming a major element of researchers’ life and that we have to learn more about its influencer factors and coping tactics in order to optimise its arrangements.

Suggested Citation

  • Aczel, Balazs & Kovacs, Marton & van der Lippe, Tanja & Szaszi, Barnabas, 2020. "Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges," MetaArXiv 52ezd, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:metaar:52ezd
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/52ezd
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5f6b8a8d46080901901ac8aa/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/52ezd?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kyle R. Myers & Wei Yang Tham & Yian Yin & Nina Cohodes & Jerry G. Thursby & Marie C. Thursby & Peter Schiffer & Joseph T. Walsh & Karim R. Lakhani & Dashun Wang, 2020. "Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 880-883, September.
    2. Sungdoo Kim & Elaine Hollensbe, 2017. "Work interrupted: a closer look at work boundary permeability," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(12), pages 1280-1297, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chiara Ghislieri & Domenico Sanseverino & Tindara Addabbo & Vincenzo Bochicchio & Rosy Musumeci & Ilenia Picardi & Patrizia Tomio & Gloria Guidetti & Daniela Converso, 2022. "The Show Must Go On: A Snapshot of Italian Academic Working Life during Mandatory Work from Home through the Results of a National Survey," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-22, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Balazs Aczel & Marton Kovacs & Tanja van der Lippe & Barnabas Szaszi, 2021. "Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Magdalena Gil & Constanza Hurtado-Acuna & Máximo Quiero-Bastías & Marigen Narea & Alejandra Caqueo-Urízar, 2023. "Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on researchers: evidence from Chile and Colombia," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Wenxuan Shi & Renli Wu, 2024. "Women’s strength in science: exploring the influence of female participation on research impact and innovation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4529-4551, July.
    4. Sofie Cairo & Ria Ivandic & Anne Sophie Lassen & Valentina Tartari, 2026. "Parenthood and the career ladder: evidence from academia," CEP Discussion Papers dp2160, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Andrew L. Kun & Raffaella Sadun & Orit Shaer & Thomaz Teodorovicz, 2022. "How does working from home during COVID-19 affect what managers do? Evidence from time-use studies," POID Working Papers 029, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Sarah Shandera & Jes L Matsick & David R Hunter & Louis Leblond, 2021. "RASE: Modeling cumulative disadvantage due to marginalized group status in academia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Ewa Małgorzata Szepietowska & Ewa Zawadzka & Sara Filipiak, 2022. "Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Sense of Gains and Losses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Ourania Tzoraki & Svetlana Dimitrova & Marin Barzakov & Saad Yaseen & Vasilis Gavalas & Hani Harb & Abas Haidari & Brian P. Cahill & Alexandra Ćulibrk & Ekaterini Nikolarea & Eleni Andrianopulu & Miro, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Working Conditions, Employment, Career Development and Well-Being of Refugee Researchers," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, July.
    9. Agnieszka Olechnicka & Adam Ploszaj & Ewa Zegler-Poleska, 2025. "The impact of the virtualization of scholarly conferences on the gender structure of conference contributors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(1), pages 423-445, January.
    10. Kaitlin Kish & Katharine Zywert & Martin Hensher & Barbara Jane Davy & Stephen Quilley, 2021. "Socioecological System Transformation: Lessons from COVID-19," World, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Dawson Kaaua & Vanitha Virudachalam, 2025. "Going the Distance: The Impact of Commute on Gender Diversity in Public Service," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 607-623, March.
    12. Duede, Eamon & Teplitskiy, Misha & Lakhani, Karim & Evans, James, 2024. "Being together in place as a catalyst for scientific advance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    13. Elizabeth A. Moschella-Smith & Sharyn J. Potter, 2024. "Impacts of COVID-19 on Research Productivity: Disruptions to the Pipeline for Early Career Researchers," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, November.
    14. Annalisa Dordoni, 2025. "Gender Inequalities and Precarious Work–Life Balance in Italian Academia: Emergency Remote Work and Organizational Change During the COVID-19 Lockdown," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-19, July.
    15. Timothy P. Johnson & Mary K. Feeney & Heyjie Jung & Ashlee Frandell & Mattia Caldarulo & Lesley Michalegko & Shaika Islam & Eric W. Welch, 2021. "COVID-19 and the academy: opinions and experiences of university-based scientists in the U.S," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-7, December.
    16. Pınar E. Dönmez, 2022. "The COVID-19 Pandemic, Academia, Gender, and Beyond: A Review," Publications, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-13, September.
    17. Adriana Báez & Muhammed Y. Idris & Kimberly Lawson & Mohamed Mubasher & Yulia Strekalova & Keith Green & Priscilla Pemu & Jonathan K. Stiles & Martiza Salazar & Alexander Quarshie & Lee S. Caplan & Er, 2023. "Impact of COVID-19 on the Research Career Advancement of Health Equity Scholars from Diverse Backgrounds," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-11, March.
    18. Sun, Zhuanlan & Liu, Sheng & Li, Yiwei & Ma, Chao, 2023. "Expedited editorial decision in COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    19. Tatyana Deryugina & Olga Shurchkov & Jenna Stearns, 2022. "Public School Access or Stay-at-Home Partner: Factors Mitigating the Adverse Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Parents," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 267-271, May.
    20. Constantin Bürgi & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2022. "The influence of Covid-19 on publications in economics: bibliometric evidence from five working paper series," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(9), pages 5175-5189, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:metaar:52ezd. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.