Field entry, published 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z, updated 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z. Group: Major Group 2: Professionals

How are researchers classified?

Researchers in ISCO-08 are classified by the field they research and by the research task itself, not by whether they work in a university, a company, a government laboratory or a charity. The defining work is systematic inquiry: framing a question, designing a study, gathering and analysing evidence, interpreting results and communicating findings. A researcher who studies materials in industry, a researcher who studies history in a university and a researcher who studies markets in a consultancy are all doing research professional work when inquiry is the main task, even though their subjects and employers differ completely.

Why does field matter more than employer?

Research employers are diverse, and the same employer can host many fields. A university employs scientists, social scientists, humanities scholars and engineers. A pharmaceutical company employs chemists, biologists, clinicians and statisticians. A government department employs economists, policy researchers and environmental scientists. If classification followed employer, all those distinct inquiries would collapse into one meaningless group. By following field, ISCO-08 preserves the knowledge that makes each inquiry distinct. A chemistry researcher and a history researcher both research, but they ask different questions, use different methods and judge evidence by different standards.

Field also explains why a researcher’s classification can change when the research changes. A person who moves from physics research to data science research has changed field, even if the employer and the building stay the same. A person who moves from university research to industry research in the same field has changed setting, not field. Classification follows the second kind of change in the first example and stays steady in the second, because it tracks knowledge and inquiry rather than payroll.

What counts as research professional work?

Research professional work includes designing studies, developing theories and methods, collecting data through experiment, observation, survey or archival work, analysing evidence, modelling outcomes and writing or presenting findings for scrutiny. It also includes research leadership: setting a research direction, securing and guiding a programme, supervising researchers and taking responsibility for the quality and ethics of the work. Those leadership tasks remain research tasks when they are exercised over a research programme, rather than over a general organisation.

Research support work is different. A research assistant who collects data to a protocol, prepares materials, runs standard analyses or manages a database under a researcher’s direction is contributing to research without originating the inquiry. A laboratory technician who maintains equipment for researchers is supporting research. A data clerk who enters research data is supporting research. Those jobs are skilled and often essential, but their main task is support or technical application, not independent inquiry. In general terms they sit with associate professionals or technicians, not with research professionals.

How are applied and basic research treated?

ISCO-08 does not draw a sharp professional boundary between basic research, which seeks new knowledge without an immediate application, and applied research, which seeks knowledge for a practical problem. Both require framing questions, designing inquiry, interpreting evidence and taking responsibility for conclusions. The purpose differs, but the professional character is shared. An applied researcher who designs a study to solve a production problem is doing research professional work, just as a basic researcher who designs a study to test a theory is doing research professional work.

What matters is whether inquiry dominates the job. A professional who spends most time advising clients, teaching students or managing a product, and only occasionally reads research, is not classified as a researcher on the basis of that occasional reading. A professional who spends most time on inquiry, even while also teaching or advising, may be classified as a researcher when research is the dominant and defining task. Blended university posts, which combine research and teaching, need that dominance test, and a general guide cannot settle an individual blended post without a clear account of its main tasks.

What questions clarify a researcher placement?

Start with the inquiry. What question does the job seek to answer, and what would count as an answer? Name the field that question belongs to, in plain language. Describe the method. Does the job design the study or carry out steps designed by someone else? Describe the interpretation. Does the job judge evidence, draw conclusions and defend them to peers or users? Describe the output. Is it new knowledge, a model, a theory, an evaluation or a published finding?

When those answers point to a distinct field, an originated inquiry and interpretive responsibility for findings, the work sits among research professionals in Major Group 2, within the professional family of its field. When they point to data collection, preparation or routine analysis under direction, the work sits with research support. The ILO structure refines researcher occupations by field in detail, and that structure should be consulted for finer placement, since general language about research cannot replace it.

Sources checked

1. ILO ISCO-08 structure

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