A researcher is a person who studies a subject carefully to discover new facts or test ideas. They often work in universities, laboratories, companies, or organizations.
Formed from *research* + *-er*, a suffix that indicates a person who does an action. The role became more defined as modern science and academic institutions developed.
Researchers are professional 'not-knowers'—their job is to admit what we don’t understand and then chase it. Many big breakthroughs come from researchers noticing something tiny that everyone else ignored.
The role of 'researcher' was long coded as male in many disciplines, with women restricted to assistant roles or excluded from labs, fieldwork, and authorship. Citation and hiring practices often erased or minimized women researchers' contributions.
Use 'researcher' as a gender-neutral term and avoid assuming a researcher's gender. When describing historical periods, note both the exclusion of women and the presence of women researchers whose work was marginalized.
["investigator","scholar","scientist"]
When summarizing research histories, explicitly credit women and gender-minority researchers whose work was foundational but under-recognized, such as in computing, genetics, and social sciences.
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