Job Description Summary
The Research Coordinator will provide direct research support to the PI and Project Director to design, develop, and execute study protocols.
Job Description
Lab Environment
The Communication Neuroscience Laboratory at The Annenberg School for Communication is looking for 1-2 Research Coordinators to join a welcoming group of researchers. We believe that our science is better with a diverse team. We embrace and encourage our lab members’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our lab members who they are. Alumni from our lab have gone on to successful careers in research, academia, government, non-profit, and business arenas. Many of them continue to collaborate with us and with one another.
Content Focus
The Research Coordinators will support interdisciplinary research on persuasion, health communication, how ideas and behaviors spread, and social cognition. Research in the lab connects neuroscience measures to real-world outcomes, with a focus on health and well-being (e.g., smoking, exercise, alcohol, social connection, mood). We use multiple methods, including survey and other self-report measures, social network analysis, neuroimaging, experience sampling, behavioral observation, and linguistic analysis.
Ongoing projects that the research coordinator may contribute to include studies that: (1) test why and how people share health and climate-related information online, using brain imaging and survey methods; (2) combine information about social networks and brain responses to predict daily health behavior (e.g., alcohol consumption, physical activity) and well-being; and/or (3) test how exposure to tobacco marketing in the real world affects smoking behavior and brain activity.
The Research Coordinator will provide direct research support to the PI and Project Director to design, develop, and execute study protocols. Primary duties include:
- Document study procedures and maintain study documentation.
- Assist with Institutional Review Board protocol preparation and maintenance, including communicating with funding agencies.
- Assist with annual review reports and meetings, and grant proposal preparation.
- Develop data collection and data management protocols.
- Recruit participants and perform data collection in the field and online.
- Manage project-specific finances including participant payments.
- Assist with data management and curation, including data cleaning, processing, and analysis. Facilitate secure data sharing with collaborators.
- Manage undergraduate Research Assistants, onboard collaborators, and coordinate the project’s study team.
- Perform literature searches and author study research papers.
Along with their primary duties, research coordinators will have opportunities to pursue their individual interests in the lab. These might include direct interaction with study participants and publishing academic papers.
In addition to uploading a cover letter and resume, please complete the supplemental questions found in the survey here: https://upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eyd09OXUteKF6EC
Position is grant funded and continuation is contingent upon continued receipt of grant funds.
Qualifications:
- A B.S. or B.A., with background in psychology, neuroscience, computer science, marketing, statistics, mathematics, public health, communication studies, or a related field.
- 1 to 2 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience is required (e.g., previous lab/research assistant experience).
- Research experience in a university setting (full time or undergraduate researcher).
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and in a team.
- Ability to proactively solve problems under the direction of the PI and project team.
- Excellent communication, organizational and creativity skills.
- Ability to work on multiple tasks and projects with attention to detail.
- Ability to develop solutions to basic technical problems (e.g., with R, Python, Qualtrics).
- Interest in developing skills related to data management
Preferred:
- Experience with recruitment and running research protocols in fMRI studies.
- Experience using Qualtrics or other survey software.
- Experience with data management.
- Statistical analysis skills (e.g. in R, SPSS, Matlab, SAS, other).
- Programming skills (e.g. in Python, Matlab, etc.).
- Previous experience working with Institutional Review Boards.
Successful candidates may also have:
- Previous experience or working knowledge with fMRI data (e.g. SPM, fsl, AFNI or other imaging analysis package).
- Stimulus design and presentation in PsychoPy, or web page development experience (e.g., ability to write/edit css, javascript, html).
- Previous experience in social neuroscience or health communication research fields.
- Experience with open science practices/reproducibility, including version control (e.g., git/github).
- Desire and/or ability to write papers and grants in collaboration with the research team.
Working Conditions
Office, library, computer room
Physical Effort
Typically sitting at a desk or table
Please apply here:
—
Emily Falk, Ph.D.
Director, Communication Neuroscience Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Professor of Communication, Psychology and Marketing
http://cn.asc.upenn.edu
@falklab
Pronouns: she/her. Learn more about pronouns here (https://www.mypronouns.org/)