This guide has been developed by the Authoritarian and Challenging Environments Research Group (ACERG), a specialist group of the Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) which was established in 2023. ACERG was set up to support and promote political research on and in environments where data collection is difficult, with a special focus on in-country fieldwork in authoritarian or conflict-affected places.
Fieldwork will always be an unparalleled method of gathering data for political scientists, particularly for qualitative and inductive studies. However, the very nature of authoritarian and conflict-affected areas makes the data collection process a complicated, sensitive, and often risky endeavour. This is most clearly evidenced by the number of cases where academics have been arrested or imprisoned in recent years.
Academic institutions have not always known how to respond to these challenges, and as a result researchers (particularly PhD students conducting fieldwork for the first time) have not known where to look for advice.
This guide is the product of a two-day ACERG workshop held in May 2024 that aimed to fill this knowledge gap. Over two-dozen academics with experience of fieldwork in challenging environments were asked to list the main lessons that they had learned through their own fieldwork experiences, and to categorise these as they relate to various audiences and activities. The guide was updated in July 2025 following feedback from the 2025 ACERG workshop.
The purpose of this guide is to assist researchers (both new and established), supervisors, and universities in understanding and preparing for the challenges associated with fieldwork. It includes sections on security, pre- and post-fieldwork logistics, advice for supervisors, and information for institutions. Note that we do not recommend that researchers carry a hard copy of this guide during their fieldwork, as some of the advice given may relate to security advice that could draw suspicion from local authorities.
The guide is not intended to provide practical advice for the research process itself (interview techniques, qualitative research design, etc.). For that, we recommend consulting the literature on fieldwork methods in complex environments. A good start is the list compiled by Advancing Conflict Research: https://advancingconflictresearch.com/new-page-1
For more information on the guide, please reach out to the Authoritarian and Challenging Environments Research Group.
