Mental Health of Academic Staff in Ukraine During the Full-Scale War

Abstract This record contains an anonymised public-use dataset from a survey of academic staff in Ukraine conducted during the full-scale war. The dataset documents mental health, perceived stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, burnout-related indicators, displacement status, and selected socio-demographic and work-related characteristics of academic staff working in Ukrainian higher education. The dataset was prepared for open reuse as a minimised public-use version. Direct identifiers were not included. Potentially identifying or high-risk variables were removed, generalised, or recoded before publication. Exact timestamps, detailed occupational categories, detailed institutional characteristics, and open-text responses were excluded from the public-use file. Age and displacement-related variables were aggregated to reduce re-identification risk. Anxiety and depressive symptoms are provided as scale-level summary indicators rather than full sensitive item-level data. The dataset may be useful for research on academic mental health, wartime higher education, occupational stress, burnout, displacement, institutional support, and the psychosocial consequences of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine for the higher education sector. Dataset contents The record includes the following files: - `mental_health_academic_staff_ukraine_public_use.csv` — anonymised public-use dataset.- `codebook_public_use.csv` — variable names, labels, coding, and notes.- `README.md` — dataset overview, reuse information, and methodological notes. The public-use dataset contains 430 responses and 40 variables. Methods Data were collected through a structured online survey among academic staff in Ukraine during the period of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The survey included standardised mental health and psychosocial indicators, together with socio-demographic and work-related variables relevant to academic work under wartime conditions. The public-use dataset was created from the original survey file through data minimisation and anonymisation procedures. Variables that could increase the risk of respondent identification, especially in combination with other variables, were removed or generalised. Free-text responses were excluded from the open version. Sensitive mental health indicators are provided in aggregated or scale-level form where appropriate. FAIR and responsible open-data approach This dataset was prepared in line with the FAIR principles of research data management: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability. The Zenodo record provides structured metadata, a persistent identifier, a public-use CSV dataset, a codebook, README documentation, and checksums to support discovery, citation, interpretation, and reuse. At the same time, openness was balanced with ethical responsibility and disclosure-risk reduction. Because the dataset concerns mental health, academic work, displacement, and wartime experiences, the public-use version was prepared conservatively. The release process involved data minimisation, anonymisation, variable aggregation, and the removal of high-risk or potentially identifying information. The preparation of this dataset was also informed by responsibility-oriented and people-centred approaches to data sharing, including ethical reuse, collective benefit, contextual integrity, and non-maleficence. Users are expected to cite the dataset appropriately, use it only for legitimate scholarly, educational, or policy-related purposes, and not attempt to re-identify respondents or link the dataset with external information for identification purposes. Ethical and data protection note The dataset is shared as an anonymised and minimised public-use version. It does not include names, email addresses, raw timestamps, institutional identifiers, or open-text responses. Because the survey concerns mental health and wartime experiences, the public-use file was prepared to reduce disclosure risk and protect respondents. Users of the dataset must not attempt to identify individual respondents, institutions, or small subgroups. The data should not be used in ways that could stigmatise academic staff, displaced persons, Ukrainian higher education institutions, or other affected groups. Reuse conditions The dataset may be reused for scholarly, educational, and policy-related purposes, provided that the source is properly cited and the data are used responsibly. Any reuse should respect the sensitive nature of the data and the wartime context in which they were collected.