Any autistic PhD students struggling out there?

I’ve got to be honest if my personal experience is anything to go by do not expect it to get any easier as you progress beyond PhD.

I’m not trying to discourage you. Scientific research has been a huge source of joy of my life and I still want a career in scientific research. However as things stand at the moment there are things that are typically difficult for autistic people that are part of academia but you’re just not gonna get any help with.

Writing papers is a big one. I Expect you’re confident and competent to technically describe your research. However there’s a lot more to writing a research paper than describing technical aspects of research. Research journals expect you to tailor the style of your writing to what their readers expect. Writing good abstracts and introductions that motivate and interest the reader is arguably as important as technical rigour. At least as far as editors are concerned.

For senior researchers a research paper is generally a small snapshot framing a small part of a larger program of research. The editor and peer reviews will probably want to know how your research figures in the larger research program of your research group.

Then there is the issue of peer reviewers. People reviewing your work are typically also the people who are your competitors as researchers. They have their own axes to grind. So as much as they claim to be impartial and unbiased you need to consider how they might view research but does not Play well with their own.

These skills have nothing to do with technical expertise or rigour or being able to describe work technically. It’s politics and storytelling. No offence but I don’t feel well equipped for it maybe that’s an autistic thing I think it probably is.

My advice to you is if you seriously consider a research career after your PhD. Do your absolute best to get at least one good quality research paper published in which you are the first author before the end of your PhD. And if at all possible get a co-author on board as a second author who can help you with the editing because frankly if you can get somebody else to write the introduction and abstract for you it will help a lot.

Then there is a grant application writing.

It’s unusual for PhD is to make grant applications. Postdocs occasionally make grant applications in coordination with their principal investigators. But the process of writing a grant application is effectively a process of persuasive writing. Again as an autistic person I find this difficult I expect you will too. I imagine making the application with another person who can help with the editing will be of great assistance to you and in fairness that’s not unusual at the post doc stage. But remember you do need to make a grant applications before you move towards the later stages of your career to more senior roles otherwise you will not be considered for those senior roles because they are mostly funded by you making grant applications.

Then there is networking.

So much modern research is collaborative if you’re not able to make good collaborative relationships with other labs it will hamper your career. Not only because you will lose the opportunity to do research that will make use of special skills and equipment available in other research groups but because when you move onto your next position these are the people who might be determining whether or not you get hired. Developing a good relationship with them will greatly increase your employability. Research community in any given area tends to be quite small. people tend to know each other and if they don’t know you they are less likely to hire you.

Your instinct is probably to knuckle down to focus on your research which is good. However if you don’t go to and engage with research conferences and similar networking events, and get to know people, it will harm your career in the long run.

I’ve got to be honest if my personal experience is anything to go by do not expect it to get any easier as you progress beyond PhD.

I’m not trying to discourage you. Scientific research has been a huge source of joy of my life and I still want a career in scientific research. However as things stand at the moment there are things that are typically difficult for autistic people that are part of academia but you’re just not gonna get any help with.

Writing papers is a big one. I Expect you’re confident and competent to technically describe your research. However there’s a lot more to writing a research paper than describing technical aspects of research. Research journals expect you to tailor the style of your writing to what their readers expect. Writing good abstracts and introductions that motivate and interest the reader is arguably as important as technical rigour. At least as far as editors are concerned.

For senior researchers a research paper is generally a small snapshot framing a small part of a larger program of research. The editor and peer reviews will probably want to know how your research figures in the larger research program of your research group.

Then there is the issue of peer reviewers. People reviewing your work are typically also the people who are your competitors as researchers. They have their own axes to grind. So as much as they claim to be impartial and unbiased you need to consider how they might view research but does not Play well with their own.

These skills have nothing to do with technical expertise or rigour or being able to describe work technically. It’s politics and storytelling. No offence but I don’t feel well equipped for it maybe that’s an autistic thing I think it probably is.

My advice to you is if you seriously consider a research career after your PhD. Do your absolute best to get at least one good quality research paper published in which you are the first author before the end of your PhD. And if at all possible get a co-author on board as a second author who can help you with the editing because frankly if you can get somebody else to write the introduction and abstract for you it will help a lot.

Then there is a grant application writing.

It’s unusual for PhD is to make grant applications. Postdocs occasionally make grant applications in coordination with their principal investigators. But the process of writing a grant application is effectively a process of persuasive writing. Again as an autistic person I find this difficult I expect you will too. I imagine making the application with another person who can help with the editing will be of great assistance to you and in fairness that’s not unusual at the post doc stage. But remember you do need to make a grant applications before you move towards the later stages of your career to more senior roles otherwise you will not be considered for those senior roles because they are mostly funded by you making grant applications.

Then there is networking.

So much modern research is collaborative if you’re not able to make good collaborative relationships with other labs it will hamper your career. Not only because you will lose the opportunity to do research that will make use of special skills and equipment available in other research groups but because when you move onto your next position these are the people who might be determining whether or not you get hired. Developing a good relationship with them will greatly increase your employability. Research community in any given area tends to be quite small. people tend to know each other and if they don’t know you they are less likely to hire you.

Your instinct is probably to knuckle down to focus on your research which is good. However if you don’t go to and engage with research conferences and similar networking events, and get to know people, it will harm your career in the long run.

Hi Peter, it has been really nice to read about your experiences, good and bad! A lot of the time I read very good advice that would only really help if we lived in an ideal world where everyone was treated as they should be. Sadly this is not the reality we live in. 

I am actually really good at the reading and writing part - I have already published some findings, reviews and editorials. I have also taken part in the review process and I understand how difficult it can be to navigate. I do very much enjoy this part and seem to be quicker at it than my peers. I am also really good at lay writing and public engagement work where I translate what I do into something intelligible to non-experts.

Where I fall down is the social aspect - if I'm on top of my game I can socialise and network and mask and everything is fine though I eventually seriously deplete my ability to function if I do it too much. The problem at the moment is I am so behind and under so much pressure my functioning is very impaired. I have become a stuttering mess when I try to communicate. People have a tendency to dislike me - one of my earliest memories as a child is when another girl that I didn't know came up to me and said 'I don't like you, I don't know why, I just don't' and she walked off again. This has sort of been my experience in life - I am always 'off' to other people and they can't figure out why. This part of academia is why I have decided it is not for me - I love the research, the science, the writing, etc., but the social requirements are beyond my ability to deal with. I wonder how they would handle these things if I was unable to talk at all? Can non-verbal people navigate academia? How does that work?

As it stands I want to work in the health service in a much more structured career and do computer based genomics work and research - I have found that I absolutely love data science and coding so this seems like a niche I can fit into (hopefully). I just need to make it 6 months and be able to get the data I need to write a thesis and to do that I need to stop having meltdowns from building frustration at a lack of resources/support in my Centre.