Award-winning article highlights anxiety as a creative force in the research process

Karl Gustafsson and Linus Hagström have been awarded the European Political Science journal's Jacqui Briggs EPS Prize for the best academic article of 2024.

They receive the prize for their article "The insecurity of doing research and the ‘so what question’ in political science: how to develop more compelling research problems by facing anxiety", which explores the role of anxiety in the research process.

“We focus on how to formulate a research question, and how anxiety actually can contribute to a more creative research process and more interesting research problems,” says Karl Gustafsson.

Uncertainty and anxiety as a part of the research process

The article draws on theoretical reflections on identity, anxiety and narrative, as well as the authors’ own experiences as researchers. They explore the relationship between anxiety and creativity, and emphasise that anxiety should be confronted and embraced rather than avoided. Both authors argue that much of the process involves perseverance and working through difficult emotions in order to progress in research.

“Anxiety is usually seen as something negative, and the natural reaction is to avoid it. But scholars who have written extensively on the topic argue that if we, instead of avoiding anxiety, embrace it and try to understand what it can teach us, it can actually lead to something positive,” says Karl Gustafsson.

Significant contribution to the field of political science

The prize is given to an article that makes a substantial contribution to the field of political science, especially articles that contribute to the understanding of new trends in political science or innovative approaches to teaching and learning within the profession.

Reasons for the award:

Why is it so hard to develop good research problems? Probably all of us have struggled with this question. This article convincingly shows that it is good if we as researchers, have anxiety and doubt about the research process. In fact, according to Gustafsson and Hagstrom having uncertainties, feeling doubtful or anxious might actually be necessary to have a good research design and afterwards credible results. Aside from highlighting that anxiety is healthy in the research process, the article provides valuable advice on how to construct a research design. This research design might offer some guidance to early-stage researchers to approach the research process. It might also provide valuable advice for how advisors may help students to deal with these fundamental insecurities.