Beyond Publish-or-Perish: A Conversation on Wellbeing for Researchers
Join an honest hour on the pressures of research life, with a panel of early-career researchers, editors and people who support academics day to day. We’ll also make time for your questions.
Registration takes under a minute. Can't make the date? Sign up anyway and we'll send you the recording.
You're not the only one
Hearing people name the pressures of research life openly, which is often the hardest part to do first.
What's structural and what isn't
A look at how research culture shapes wellbeing, and where individuals, supervisors and institutions each come in.
What support actually exists
Where institutions, supervisors, and publishers can help, and what to ask for.
Something to take with you
A short resource list sent with the recording afterward, so you don't have to take notes.
One hour, four questions authors ask us most.
1
The pressures nobody puts in the job description
Uncertain contracts, competition with the people closest to your work, rejection as routine, and research that has to fit around everything else.
2
Why it's so hard to talk about
Isolation and the question of who you can be honest with when everyone around you is also a competitor. And what helps people speak up.
3
What can actually change
What institutions and supervisors can do differently, and what already works.
4
Your questions, answered live
Bring them on the day. We'll get through as many as we can.
No prior knowledge assumed. The session is held in English.
Brianne Helfrich is a Bioethics PhD graduate from Duquesne University. During her doctoral program and in her current role as a Bioethics Fellow at the #1 children's hospital in the world, she focuses on pediatric ethics and strongly advocates for pediatric voice in healthcare. Her book Beyond Pediatric Palliative Care is forthcoming with De Gruyter in December 2026.
Mia Russell is a lecturer in the Center for Leadership Education at Johns Hopkins University, where she works with student researchers and early-career researchers. Her research focuses on wellbeing at work, and she co-authored Fired Up! A Guide to Transforming Your Team from Burnout to Engagement (De Gruyter Brill, 2022).
Mirjam Elbers has worked at De Gruyter Brill for more than 15 years as an Acquisitions Editor for Classical Studies. She recently published her PhD thesis alongside her full-time job.
Martin brings over 35 years of experience in professional, academic, and educational publishing to his role as moderator. Alongside his publishing career, he works as a practicing psychotherapist, a combination that makes him uniquely placed to guide a conversation about the real pressures of academic life from both the industry and the human side.
Everyone who signs up gets the recording, the slides and the author checklist by email.