Why So Few Stay in Research Long-Term

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · May 17, 2025 · 7m

I’ve been doing this for a long time—and I keep asking the same question:

Why do so many people disappear from academic research?

We tell ourselves it’s about intelligence. That people drop out because they weren’t smart enough.

But I think that’s a cop-out.

What I’ve actually seen is this: people leave because they don’t feel supported.

Yes, it takes grit.

Yes, it takes personal drive.

But the thing that keeps people going—year after year, failure after failure—is community.

And that’s exactly what’s missing for so many PhDs and researchers.

We burn people out.

We isolate them.

We make the…