Doctoral work, by its nature a journey into uncharted territory, can be an uphill, lonesome slog at the best of times.ÌýThrow in a global pandemic’s uncertainty and isolating lockdowns – including no access to labs, libraries or even fieldwork – and it is little wonder that doctoral students were sending out distress signals.ÌýRecently, a team of Quebec researchers conducted an exploratory studyÌýon the effects the pandemic had on doctoral students. They discovered distress was much higher among female doctoral students, who also reported higher rates of disruption in their research progress.