Sustainable Working Conditions in Academia Survey (STAIRCASE Survey) 

This initial release (April 2024) is a Campus Use File, intended for teaching and training purposes. For data protection reasons, it contains a limited number of variables. The Scientific Use File for research purposes is expected to be released in April 2026.

The dataset contains a wide range of psychological, occupational, and demographic variables from individuals working in academic environments. It includes information on psychometric scales, characteristics of the working environment, and traits of leadership personnel.

Collected data includes measures of work engagement, burnout, resilience, stress and anxiety, overall wellbeing, job predictability, role clarity, perceptions of workplace safety policies, job insecurity, job control, interpersonal conflict, work-family conflict, sense of community, illegitimate tasks, work-related stress, as well as emotional and instrumental support. Leadership aspects such as leader demands, lack of care, supervisor integrity, and overall job satisfaction were also assessed.

Demographic information includes gender, age, nationality, civil status, partner’s employment status, income, time since completion of PhD, primary position (following EURAXESS definitions), research field, and additional places of work.

Furthermore, several characteristics of the working environment were surveyed, including the country of the main workplace, contract duration, overtime hours, time allocation for teaching, research, fundraising, mentoring, and administrative tasks, number of research outputs, opportunities for personal development, intentions to leave academia, experiences or perceptions of harassment, and frequency of meetings with supervisors.