Research Assistant

Contract: Full time or part time, fixed term (10 months)

Detailed description

The RA will be working within the auspices of the pan-European WIDERA consortium project iRISE (Improving Reproducibility In SciencE) under the guidance of Dr Daniele Fanelli, within the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University.

The core task involves helping to collect data and portions of text from samples of published studies, and prepare them for subsequent analyses. Depending on the candidate’s interest and skills, they may also be directly involved in the development and testing of Natural Language Processing techniques to analyse this data. Secondary tasks include helping with the organization of events, materials, and small administrative tasks related to the project. 

Funds are available for up to 10 months full-time employment, but a more extended, part-time employment can be considered.

Key duties and responsibilities

• Help to identify and collect samples of scientific studies from suitable databases, collect meta-data of these articles, prepare texts extracted from them. 
• Contribute to the development of novel, transferable methodologies to analyse the scientific literature.
• Help with and contribute to dissemination activities, such as conferences and workshops.
• Help with general management of the project and research group (e.g. web page and social media communication).

Education, qualifications and experience

Essential

• You should have a Master’s degree in a quantitative subject (any disciplinary background is accepted).
• Some knowledge and experience conducting literature searches and data collection.

Desirable

• Programming and statistical skills (especially R and/or Python).
• Experience and/or a demonstrable interest in graphical methods of knowledge representation and/or quantitative text analysis and Natural Language Processing.
• Knowledge and practical understanding of basic concepts in information theory (e.g. Shannon Entropy, Kolmogorov complexity).
• Experience in quantitative science and an integrated knowledge of data and analytical sciences

For all criteria, further details and how to apply:

enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX/job/4058/?utm_medium=jobshare

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers disc.hw.ac.uk.

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