A glossary for Better Science:

Better Science focuses on people with their needs, abilities and actions. They experience continuous pressure from constant evaluation and quantification in research, as well as from high demands on teaching and third-party funding. However, this contrasts with a healthy workload that allows for creativity and openness in teaching and research. This affects not only academic excellence and diversity, but also the rules of the game and the working conditions of academic careers. Diversity and equal opportunities at the university enable everyone to pursue excellent research and teaching.

A new academic culture begins at the individual level as well as at the level of the university system. The Better Science Initiative aims to enable all university members to engage, network, and exchange ideas. In a sustainable research culture, responsible leaders have the capacity to empower and support their staff. Science policy and universities also contribute to a good research culture and academic excellence. Fair evaluation practices judge by quality rather than quantity.

Ten calls to action serve as a starting point for discussion and encourage rethinking. By raising awareness among university members and academic leaders, the initiative draws attention to the challenging work environment at universities. The Better Science Initiative advocates for quality, healthy research, calls for equal opportunity, inclusion and diversity, and is committed to sustainable working conditions.

By signing the calls to action, you make your support for the Better Science Initiative visible. Everything else is up to you: Become active for the implementation of the calls to action. Print out the poster with the calls to action and hang it on your office door, lead a discussion in your team about the topics of the Better Science Initiative or organize a workshop on the implementation of the calls to action in your institute. You will find many opportunities and approaches to address research culture in your team, unit and implement improvements in our collection of good practices.

The signature as institute, faculty, university or other organization shows the recognition of the importance of the issues the Better Science Initiative presents. In addition, the organization acknowledges the intent to implement the calls to actions.

The exact implementation process is decided upon by the organization. In the publications list further down on this page, there is a document laying out the signature process.

By signing the calls to action, you make your organization's support for the Better Science Initiative visible. Afterwards, discuss in your organization what this means for you and your employees. We are happy to support you in implementing the Better Science Initiative in your structures and processes. See our links for resources on how other institutions promote a good research culture. Contact us here if you have further questions..

Would you like to present and discuss the demands of the Better Science Initiative, implementation ideas and research culture topics in your team, institute or organization? We support you in conducting workshops and other events that explore how you can implement the contents of Better Science in your team, research and teaching. For more in-depth exploration of how to implement the calls to action in your team or organization, we offer a workshop package. Contact us here if you would like to learn more.

Our chatbot explains the precarious situation of many university employees. Many lecturers and scientists are exposed to a "culture of overtime" and suffer from psychological stress more often than others. Here we describe our demands in detail. Healthy, happy people who work in an environment that offers them psychological safety perform better. This safety can be guaranteed in particular by an appropriate design of the culture in a team, an institute. Diverse teams are also more focused, innovative, and diligent (see also Gewin 2018). The Better Science Initiative wants to draw attention to the potential that many higher education units can use to do and share better science. You can find more articles on the topic below and in our good practices collection.

The tertiary education sector (in Switzerland) is characterized by a large number of different institutions. The Better Science Initiative refers primarily, but not exclusively, to the work and environment of universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education, which can be classified as academic education. Common to these various institutions of higher education is the combination of research and teaching. The Better Science Initiative thus offers approaches for all university members to address the culture in their team or unit.

The maxim of "excellence" is everywhere in higher education. Calls for excellent teaching, research, excellent universities and teams abound. But what is excellence? Who can do excellent teaching or research? The definition of excellence significantly influences the work of university members who want to do excellent research and teaching. At the same time, the concept of excellence is very blurred (Moore et al. 2017).

The Better Science Initiative assumes that the dimensions of leadership, evaluation, and research culture in particular offer the keys to successful science and teaching (see calls to action). For the Better Science Initiative, it is crucial that university members and academic institutions address the question of excellence and are aware of which model of excellence they follow. The Better Science Initiative advocates for a definition of excellence that offers diversity and equal opportunities and enables all to pursue excellent research.

Thus, the "better" in "Better Science Initiative" can be read as an imperative: to better science; to improve higher education, toward a culture in which quality is broadly defined.

Establishing a good culture in higher education is a long process. Initiated as a bottom-up movement, the Better Science Initiative links the demands with concrete implementation possibilities at the structural level. Here, people with leadership responsibility are particularly tasked: They hold positions in which they can initiate and support change - in the team, in the institute, in the faculty or in other committees. Academic leaders thus have the responsibility to ensure a good academic culture in order to enable their employees to do excellent work.

Research culture encompasses the accepted behaviors, values, experiences and expectations, attitudes, and the unwritten norms of communities in higher education. It shapes the environment in which university members operate. Research culture influences who conducts research and teaching, what research is funded, and how teaching is designed. Research culture affects a wide range of areas of the higher education system, such as scientific integrity, diversity of research groups, and inclusion of researchers in strategic decision-making, as well as career paths, recognition, appreciation, open science, collaboration, and mental and physical health of university staff.

A good research culture helps recruit the best scientists and faculty and fosters an innovative and creative academic environment. It is characterized by university members being valued for their diverse contributions to a research activity and helping each other succeed.
The many implicit rules and habits lived and repeated by university members are expressed in a variety of attitudes and norms. As difficult as it is to define research culture, it is to regulate it top-down. Thus, changing research culture can only happen with the support of the entire university community.

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These are the initiators of the project.

You can find more information on the issues the Better Science Initiative covers on this page under "publications".