Study finds patterns of harassment and sexist treatment of scholars in far-flung locations that offer few of the protections of campuses.

Many academics regard fieldwork — the chance to make discoveries and come face-to-face with what they’ve spent years studying — as a career highlight. Beyond that, it’s a crucial to career development. So a 2014 study highlighting widespread sexual harassment at academic field sites struck a chord — or rather, was so discordant with many scientists’ perceptions of what fieldwork should be that it’s still frequently cited.

Last week, for example, Science offered the grim finding of that 2014 study as background in a major story on Boston University investigating its chair of Earth and environment for alleged sexual harassment of trainees in Antarctica. Some 71 percent of 512 self-selecting female respondents reported being sexually harassed during fieldwork, the overwhelmingly majority of them trainees at the time, according to the study.

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Also see this academic paper about this study