Remote Research Assistant Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the remote research assistant job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to fulfill to be hired for the remote research assistant role.

What Does a Remote Research Assistant Do?

A remote research assistant is an important career role focused on providing critical support for research projects across domains like academia, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and more.

Remote research assistants typically directly report to a Principal Investigator or Research Director that leads complex studies.

While this virtual role can be performed from anywhere with strong internet access, those with medical, scientific, or technical backgrounds are preferred by employers.

Common education requirements are a Bachelor’s degree at minimum, with many companies wanting candidates with Master’s or Doctorate’s in relevant domains.

The remote research assistant job description involves literature analysis, study design, recruiting participants, data collection/mining, authoring research papers, and analyzing results to advance projects.

Other common duties include creating charts/graphs, improving research efficiency using technology, presenting findings via video conference, and coordinating logistics across global affiliated teams.

Given rigorous methodologies must be applied uniformly across international institutions to ensure research integrity, Remote Research Assistants are critical for enabling collaboration.

Top employers look for candidates with research specialization, attention to detail, technical aptitude, multitasking and communications competencies.

Relevant regulation bodies governing international research standards include institutional review boards (IRB) and industry organizations like AHRA for biopharmaceutical research norms.

Remote Research Assistant Job Description Example/Sample/Template

The remote research assistant job description consists of the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

• Perform literature reviews using online databases to identify relevant existing studies and uncover knowledge gaps
• Assist in designing experimental protocols by researching best practices
• Recruit participants for studies by posting on websites or contacting relevant groups
• Create research materials like surveys, interview questions, info sheets, consent forms
• Communicate with study participants via email, video calls to provide study information
• Schedule and conduct interviews, focus groups using video conferencing tools
• Monitor research studies progress and update team using project management systems
• Collect experimental, survey, interview, and other data remotely
• Transcribe video interviews with participants into text documents
• Enter quantitative and qualitative data into spreadsheets and databases
• Run statistics and analyses on data using Excel, SPSS, R, Python, or other programs
• Summarize findings in reports, graphs, charts and PowerPoint presentations
• Write sections of manuscripts, study protocols, grant applications per guidelines
• Fact check and edit scientific papers for proper usage, readability, and formatting
• Document procedures thoroughly so studies can be reproduced 
• Import large datasets and identify relevant subsets to analyze based on research questions 
• Clean, code, and validate complex datasets using programming languages like Python
• Audit data for abnormalities, inconsistencies, missing values and resolve issues
• Archive datasets, codebooks, reports and files on shared drives or research data repositories
• Coordinate with lab technicians, students to troubleshoot issues with remote experiments
• Virtually assist in submitting research to Institutional Review Boards(IRB) for ethics approval
• Set up tele/video conferencing tools and record sessions for later analysis 
• Remotely present findings via video conference at team meetings or conferences
• Liaise between research team members across locations to assist collaboration 
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve research efficiency using technology.

Remote Research Assistant Job Description for Resume

If you have worked as a remote research assistant before or presently working in that role and are making a new resume or CV, then you can craft a compelling Professional Experience section by applying the sample remote research assistant job description provided above.

You can highlight the major duties and responsibilities you have previously carried out as a remote research assistant in your resume’s Professional Experience by utilizing the ones in the above job description example.

This will show that you have been successful performing the remote research assistant duties and responsibilities, which can greatly boost your chances of being hired for the new job that you are seeking, especially if it requires someone with some remote research assistant work experience.

Remote Research Assistant Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Remote research assistants require a diverse blend of hard and soft skills to succeed in their roles supporting research remotely. Essential skills and knowledge areas include:

• Research Methods: Strong grasp of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Ability to apply rigorous analytics to draw data-driven conclusions.

• Statistics: Fluency in statistical analysis tools and techniques (e.g. R, SAS, Python, regression models) to process data.

• Scientific Writing: Ability to synthesize research findings and articulate complex concepts clearly in manuscripts, reports, presentations and other research outputs. 

• Data Analysis: Expertise using data analysis, visualization, and BI tools (e.g. Tableau, Excel, Python) to uncover trends and patterns in datasets.

• Project Management: Success tracking multiple studies simultaneously. Requires organization, attention to detail, time management competencies. 

• Communication Skills: Aptitude to correspond effectively through written, verbal and visual mediums with diverse global teams and participant groups.

• Technical Literacy: Proficiency learning new specialty research applications, databases, data repositories, teleconferencing tools to collaborate virtually.

• Multitasking: Juggle various phase tasks seamlessly for multiple research projects at once.

• Lifelong Learning: Curiosity to expand domain knowledge across disciplines by consuming lectures, publications, engaging field experts.

As far as critical abilities, top remote research assistants think critically, exercise good judgment in decision making, and demonstrate intellectual rigor in their work.

Remote Research Assistant Salary

The typical yearly wage for remote research assistants in America was $66,102 as of May 2022, as stated by the United States Bureau of Labor Data.

The highest 10% of remote research helpers made over $105,010, while the bottom 10% made under $41,398. 

The top five states in 2022 that offer the highest salaries to remote research assistants are as follows:

Californias median income is $93,498 while Massachusetts follows closely at $82,028.

New York takes the spot with an income of $79,562 and Washington and Colorado round out the top five with respective incomes of $76,926 and $75,448.

Conclusion

We have explored the job description of a remote research assistant in this guide. It is a career path that allows individuals to contribute to studies while enjoying the flexibility of remote work.

As the field of science delves into frontiers and organizations increasingly embrace positions, there will be a growing demand for research assistants who can collaborate effectively from anywhere, with reliable internet access.

Whether you are a graduate looking to gain experience before pursuing further studies or are a research professional seeking better work life balance through telecommuting opportunities, or even an employer aiming to expand your team cost effectively by utilizing virtual staff members, this article is for you.

It emphasizes why prioritizing remote research support is a wise decision.