Long-term ecological studies' practices and goals for trainees

We created a survey for the other authors in the 2024 Ecology Letters special issue on very long-term ecological studies about their practices and goals for trainees. We received 27 responses from researchers around the world studying a broad range of organisms across ecosystems. In more than half of the responding programs, undergraduate students collect, curate, and analyze data, as well as develop research questions, present at conferences, and contribute to writing scientific papers. Unlike our program, which primarily recruits from one university, other long-term studies often target a variety of institutions (79% of respondents). About half reported targeted recruitment of students from marginalized identities and a similar proportion paid students for their work. Students were slightly more likely to collaborate with a cohort of other students (3.8 in 1-5 Likert scale) and have peer cohort building activities (3.6 in 1-5 Likert scale). When asked to rank the helpful characteristics of long-term studies to undergraduate students, top choices included “links between research, internship, classes”, “extensive professional networks”, “rich data”, and “robust logistics”. The rank of “paid salaries” was split, with about a third of the programs ranking it least helpful to students but the other third of programs ranking it either as the first or second most helpful attribute of long-term programs. Based on comments related to funding, the low salary ranking might be associated with student funding opportunities available through university grants or independent fellowships. Overall, this suggests the most impactful transformation long-term studies can make is to advocate for paying trainees in future grant proposals.

Methods
We sent a survey to other scientists that submitted a proposal to the Ecology Letters special issue on very long-term ecological studies. The survey questions covered the following topics:

Duration of study
Trainee recruitment
Trainee involvement in the scientific process
Trainee mentorship and support
Compensation for trainees
Perceived value of program for trainees.