About This Project

This project develops an open-source platform to study how gamified career tracking and mentorship tools affect researcher well-being and collaboration. Users set goals, track outputs and metrics, and receive balance-promoting prompts. The platform supports self-assessment and meta-research on academic environments. The hypothesis is that structured, user-led tracking and support will help reduce burnout, foster collaboration, and improve outcomes across research environments and disciplines.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Research in academia requires skillful balancing of publishing, mentoring, grant writing, and teaching, often without sufficient support. This contributes to burnout, inefficiency, and career dissatisfaction. This project introduces an open-source platform to explore whether gamified, structured career management tools can improve researcher well-being, collaboration, and productivity. Unlike existing systems focused on outputs alone, this platform will track mentorship, grant timelines, and workload alongside traditional metrics. Open-source and user-led, it ensures adaptability and data ownership. Gamification supports engagement through achievement milestones, planning prompts, and guided reflection tools. These features aim to help researchers—especially those in independent or under-resourced settings—build meaningful, sustainable career practices. The project also enables meta-research on woring patterns and tests new models of success beyond publication counts alone.

What is the significance of this project?

This platform addresses systemic challenges in academia, including unequal access to career development tools, limited support for broader collaboration, and increasing rates of stress and burnout. By offering an open-access, adaptable system, it empowers researchers -regardless of background or institutional resources- to better manage their careers. Crucially, it broadens the definition of academic success by valuing mentorship, innovation, and community engagement alongside traditional outputs. Users can visualize contributions across collaborative projects, align their efforts with long-term goals, and engage with global initiatives. These features promote a culture of shared progress, transparency, and mutual support. The platform also enables meta-research on success and well-being by aggregating anonymized data on outputs, funding, and collaboration patterns -offering valuable insight into the conditions that foster productive and sustainable academic careers and environments.

What are the goals of the project?

This project aims to help researchers navigate their careers by addressing overlooked but critical aspects of academic life. Beyond tracking bibliometrics and grants allocation, the platform will track relevant socio- and biometrics, allowing users to monitor on their scientific contributions. It enables users to set personal goals, monitor progress toward milestones like tenure or career transitions, and track key metrics such as publications, funding timelines, mentorship activity, and collaboration networks. A central goal is to facilitate interdisciplinary research by algorithmically connecting users across fields based on shared interests or project goals. The platform also supports mentorship by enabling visibility into collaborative contributions and fostering peer recognition. Through built-in well-being prompts and user-defined success indicators, the project aims to promote sustainable research careers that balance productivity with personal growth and community engagement.