Rosie gives an insight into her role as one of two in-kind PhD students working on Behavioural Research UK. Rosie gives an insight into her role as one of two in-kind PhD students working on Behavioural Research UK. She is based at the University of Sheffield and is currently working on her PhD 'What do effect sizes mean in real terms? Benchmarking effect sizes in behavioural research Project.' What is your role at BR-UK? I am a PhD student based at the University of Sheffield currently working on Work Package 3, Methods and Evidence Synthesis. My work focuses on benchmarking effect sizes in behavioural research and how this can be used to help people better understand the outcomes of behavioural interventions. My project involves having to work closely with other members of BR-UK, those who work at Sheffield University who supervise my project and other members of BR-UK from across different work packages. How has your background tied into the work you do in the organisation? I hold two degrees in primarily psychology based areas. I have a Bachelor degree in Psychology with a focus in Experimental Psychology and a Masters degree in Research Methods of Psychological Science. Both of these degrees have focused on the methodological and statistical areas of psychology which has definitely helped me during my PhD working on Work Package 3. During my masters degree, I worked on a project in metascience, looking at the metascientific qualities of questionnaires and how researchers report and display the use of questionnaires in their studies. My background in metascience has helped me manage working with new methodologies which had been useful in my research on benchmarking, as this is not a method I had come across before. What would you advise those studying at the moment who would like to pursue a career within behavioural research? There’s no right or wrong level of experience or knowledge when it comes to behavioural research. Everyone is still learning and expanding what they know about behavioural science with you, so don’t feel like you have to have a certain level of experience before you start to think about pursuing behavioural research. Just wanting to learn more about all behavioural science has to offer is more than enough to start thinking about a career or studying behavioural research further. What key skills would you recommend to those looking to pursue a career within behavioural research? Being able to communicate with people is one of the most important skills I have learned throughout my career. You will work with a lot of different people, so effectively communicating your ideas can lead to interesting discussions and helpful development with your work. Also, being proficient in different areas of quantitative and qualitative research methods has been important in my role in BR-UK. Being able to conduct quantitative analyses or use mixed methods approaches can be a very important part of behavioural research, so I have found that having these skills can be quite useful. This article was published on 2025-07-07
