What research culture is for: a six-dimensional framework co-created to cultivate researcher wellbeing
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Research culture, the soil in which scientific inquiry grows, shapes the quality and sustainability of research, yet remains invisible to science, technology and innovation indicators. Three converging crises signal deteriorating conditions for research: the reproducibility crisis, the productivity paradox, and a global crisis of researcher wellbeing. Reform initiatives have transformed how outputs are assessed, but no validated, internationally comparable framework captures the cultural conditions of research practice. This article reports a six-dimensional research culture framework. The framework was co-created through structured stakeholder dialogue on a principle of equal voice: a workshop of researchers, administrators, funders and policymakers, then an open symposium of approximately 300 participants. It was iteratively refined through domestic and international expert consultation, with a transparent audit trail of what entered at each stage and why. Subjective experience sits at the core, surrounded by social, epistemic, methodological, temporal and evaluative dimensions. Each is operationalised as three items on a common 0–10 scale, in Japanese and English within an instrument pairing internationally standardised wellbeing measures with the Interdependent Happiness Scale, and visualised as a radar chart for team-level dialogue, not institutional ranking. A crosswalk locates the contribution: reform effort concentrates on the evaluative dimension, while the instruments that do measure address only two of the six, the social and the evaluative, treating the other four as symptoms or facets of other constructs, if at all. A nationwide survey planned for fiscal year 2026 provides the first psychometric test, under a design fixed in advance: the six-dimension structure will be compared with rivals in a held-out half of the sample. Grounded in human flourishing theory and aligned with ISO 25554:2024, the framework treats research culture not as a variable to be audited but as a capability to be cultivated.
Source: MetArXiv (OSF Preprints)
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203840035