We are planning to hire 3–7 researchers for a one-off paid project.
There are two opportunities: Contracted Research (CR) and Independent Projects (IP).
Project Outline
What specific research themes in economics, policy, and social science are most important for global priorities?
What projects and papers are most in need of further in-depth public evaluation, attention, and scrutiny?
Where does "Unjournal-style evaluation" have the potential to be one of the most impactful uses of time and money? By impactful, we mean in terms of some global conception of value (e.g., the well-being of living things, the survival of human values, etc.).
This is an initiative that aims to identify, summarize, and conduct an in-depth evaluation of the most impactful themes in economics, policy, and social science to answer the above questions. Through a systematic review of selected papers and potential follow-up with authors and evaluators, this project will enhance the visibility, understanding, and scrutiny of high-value research, fostering both rigorous and impactful scholarship.
Contracted Research (CR) This is the main opportunity, a unique chance to contribute to the identification and in-depth evaluation of impactful research themes in economics, policy, and social science. We’re looking for researchers and research users who can commit a (once-off) 15–20 hours. CR candidates will:
Summarize a research area or theme, its status, and why it may be relevant to global priorities (~4 hours).
We are looking for fairly narrow themes. Examples might include:
The impact of mental health therapy on well-being in low-income countries.
The impact of cage-free egg regulation on animal welfare.
Public attitudes towards AI safety regulation.
Identify a selection of papers in this area that might be high-value for UJ evaluation (~3 hours).
Choose at least four of these from among NBER/"top-10 working paper" series (or from work submitted to the UJ – we can share – or from work where the author has expressed interest to you).
For a single paper, or a small set of these papers (or projects) (~6 hours)
Read the paper fairly carefully and summarize it, explaining why it is particularly relevant.
Discuss one or more aspects of the paper that need further scrutiny or evaluation.
Identify 3 possible evaluators, and explain why they might be particularly relevant to evaluate this work. (Give a few sentences we could use in an email to these evaluators).
Possible follow-up task: email and correspond with the authors and evaluators (~3 hours).
We will compensate you for your time at a rate reflecting your experience and skills ($25–$65/hour). This work also has the potential to serve as a “work sample” for future roles at The Unjournal, as it is highly representative of what our and are commissioned to do.
We are likely to follow up on your evaluation suggestions. We also may incorporate your writing into our web page and public posts; you can choose whether you want to be publicly acknowledged or remain anonymous.
Independent Projects (IP)
We are also inviting applications to do similar work as an “Independent Project” (IP), a parallel opportunity designed for those eager to engage but not interested in working under a contract, or not meeting some of the specific criteria for the Contracted Research role. This involves similar work to above.
If you are accepted to do an IP, we will offer some mentoring and feedback. We will also offer prize rewards/bounties for particularly strong IP work. We will also consider working with professors and academic supervisors on these IP projects, as part of university assignments and dissertations.
You can apply to the CR and IP positions together; we will automatically consider you for each.
Get Involved!
If you are interested in involvement in either the CR or IP side of this project, please let us know through our survey form here.
To indicate your potential interest in roles at The Unjournal, such as those described below, please fill out and link (or upload) your CV or webpage.
If you already filled out this form for a role that has changed titles, don’t worry. You will still be considered for relevant and related roles in the future.
If you add your name to this form, we may contact you to offer you the opportunity to do paid project work and paid work tasks.
Furthermore, if you are interested in conducting paid research evaluation for The Unjournal, or in joining our advisory board, please complete the form linked .
Feel free to contact contact@unjournal.org with any questions.
The Unjournal, a not-for-profit collective under the umbrella and fiscal sponsorship of the , is an equal-opportunity employer and contractor. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, volunteers, and contractors. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, disability, age, or veteran status.
See our data protection statement .
These are principally not research roles, but familiarity with research and research environments will be helpful, and there is room for research involvement depending on the candidate’s interest, background, and skills/aptitudes.
There are currently one such role:
Communications, Writing, and Public Relations Specialist (As of November 2023, still seeking freelancers)
Further note: We previously considered a “Management support and administrative professional” role. We are not planning to hire for this role currently. Those who indicated interest will be considered for other roles.
As of November 2023, we are soliciting applications for freelancers with skills in particular areas
The Unjournal is looking to work with a proficient writer who is adept at communicating with academics and researchers (particularly in economics, social science, and policy), journalists, policymakers, and philanthropists. As we are in our early stages, this is a generalist role. We need someone to help us explain what The Unjournal does and why, make our processes easy to understand, and ensure our outputs (evaluations and research synthesis) are accessible and useful to non-specialists. We seek someone who values honesty and accuracy in communication; someone who has a talent for simplifying complex ideas and presenting them in a clear and engaging way.
The work is likely to include:
Promotion and general explanation
Spread the word about The Unjournal, our approach, our processes, and our progress in press releases and short pieces, as well as high-value emails and explanations for a range of audiences
Make the case for The Unjournal to potentially skeptical audiences in academia/research, policy, philanthropy, effective altruism, and beyond
Keeping track of our progress and keeping everyone in the loop
Help produce and manage our external (and some internal) long-form communications
Help produce and refine explanations, arguments, and responses
Help provide reports to relevant stakeholders and communities
Making our rules and processes clear to the people we work with
Explain our procedures and policies for research submission, evaluation, and synthesis; make our systems easy to understand
Help us build flexible communications templates for working with research evaluators, authors, and others
Other communications, presentations, and dissemination
Write and organize content for grants applications, partnership requests, advertising, hiring, and more
Potentially: compose non-technical write-ups of Unjournal evaluation synthesis content (in line with interest and ability)
Most relevant skills, aptitudes, interests, experience, and background knowledge:
Understanding of The Unjournal project
Strong written communications skills across a relevant range of contexts, styles, tones, and platforms (journalistic, technical, academic, informal, etc.)
Familiarity with academia and research processes and institutions
Familiarity with current conversations and research on global priorities within government and policy circles, effective altruism, and relevant academic fields
Willingness to learn and use IT, project management, data management, web design, and text-parsing tools (such as those mentioned below), with the aid of GPT/AI chat
Further desirable skills and experience:
Academic/research background in areas related to The Unjournal’s work
Operations, administrative, and project management experience
Experience working in a small nonprofit institution
Experience with promotion and PR campaigns and working with journalists and bloggers
Proposed terms:
Project-based contract "freelance" work
$30–$55/hour USD (TBD, depending on experience and capabilities). Hours for each project include some onboarding and upskilling time.
Our current budget can cover roughly 200 hours of this project work. We hope to increase and extend this (depending on our future funding and expenses).
This role is contract-based and supports remote and international applicants. We can contract people living in most countries, but we cannot serve as an immigration sponsor.
In addition to the "work roles," we are looking to engage researchers, research users, meta-scientists, and people with experience in open science, open access, and management of initiatives similar to The Unjournal.
We are continually looking to enrich our general team and board, including our , These roles come with some compensation and incentives.
(Please see links and consider submitting an expression of interest).
The potential roles discussed below combine research-linked work with operations and administrative responsibilities. Overall, this may include some combination of:
Assisting and guiding the process of identifying strong and potentially impactful work in key areas, explaining its relevance, its strengths, and areas warranting particular evaluation and scrutiny
Interacting with authors, recruiting, and overseeing evaluators
Synthesizing and disseminating the results of evaluations and ratings
Aggregating and benchmarking these results
Helping build and improve our tools, incentives, and processes
Curating outputs relevant to other researchers and policymakers
Doing "meta-science" work
Express your interest here. (Nov. 2023: Note, we can not guarantee that we will be hiring for this role, because of changes in our approach.)