The Association of Internet Research (AoIR) has produced a guide, which builds on earlier work by people at Data and Society and the Researcher Support Consortium:

Risky Research: An AoIR Guide to Researcher Protection and Safety 2025

It’s not a lot, if your institution doesn’t have adequate support in place, and it’s not my work, but I hope posting it on here helps even one person who needs it to find it.

Some topics, and researchers from minority or under-represented groups, face higher risks of online harassment and worse.

Background:

I’m not an academic but work in a semi-adjacent area. One of the things I’ve been tangentially involved in recently means I’ve been thinking a lot about the balance academics have to strike between:

networking, collaborating and participating in online discourse

promoting their work and managing their reputation

protecting their privacy and managing risks

I’ve been feeling helpless about effecting institutional change (Higher Ed/HE amirite?) so am casting this into the ether in the hope it reaches someone who hasn’t found it another way.