Research Associate AI Scientometrics

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This is a 12-month postdoctoral research position on the ESRC-funded metascience project Rigour Hygiene Indicators for Research Assessment. You will work with Dr Xiaorui Jiang as part of a team of researchers developing an indicator that determines whether a research body reports statistically significant results more often than would be plausible given typical study sizes. You will support the technical delivery of an automated natural language processing pipeline for extracting statistical metrics and study design features from full texts.

This includes developing and maintaining the automated full text processing workflow, implementing extraction methods, and supporting the integration of structured data into the indicator pipeline. This role requires specialist expertise in computational text processing, natural language processing and large language models.

• Develop an automated pipeline for the data collection, cleaning and processing of scientific articles
• Statistically analyse the results, such as with correlation tests, and write up the results for publication.
• Collaborate with others in the project on shared tasks, including with project partners across four universities in the UK.
• Manage a network of researchers and others interested in assessment of the healthiness of research outputs in medical and psychological domains.
• Attend project meetings, present regular progress reports, and participate in other project-relevant activities such as training, dissemination, networking, stakeholder engagement, etc..
• Present at conferences and workshops internationally and in the UK.
• Observe the project's Data Management Plan and contribute to maintaining a well‑organised shared file system.
• As a member of staff you will be encouraged to make ethical decisions in your role, embedding the University sustainability strategy into your working activities wherever possible.
• Contribute to University life, including the free exchange of ideas and a commitment to the achievement of excellence in research and scholarship and so advance the discipline and wider society.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and is respected. Even if your past experience doesn't match perfectly with this role's criteria, your contribution is valuable, and we encourage you to apply. Please ensure that you reference the application criteria in the application statement when you apply.

• A PhD (or equivalent) in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Science/Studies, or relevant fields
  - Essential
  - Application/Interview
• Strong Python programming experience in machine learning and natural language processing ecosystems
  - Essential
  - Application/Interview
• Good expertise in basic statistics.
• Familiarity with R would be a bonus to work with the necessary toolchain
  - Desirable
  - Application
• Experience of using Large Language Models or AI as part of the methods of a research project.
  
  - Desirable
  - Application
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, report writing skills, experience of delivering presentations
  - Essential
  - Application/Interview
• Ability to engage with the substantive research questions of the project at an advanced/postdoctoral level
  - Essential
  - Application/Interview
• Proven track record of working flexibly and effectively to deadlines with a strong level of attention to…