Hi Guys,

After reading your aforementioned issues within your toxic research environments, I realised that there are other people suffering from exactly the same things that I am witnessing in my research lab.

I am entering my third year of PhD in a research group in Italy, in which a former PhD student resigned after getting to the psychiatric hospital. The supervisors were claiming that she is a spy. Another postdoc who came for a one year position (extendable for three years), and he stayed two months and he escaped (he was accused to be spying on them too).

The level of harassment, mobbing and disrespect is so high to the point which impacted my family (my wife and son) who were witnessing the events closely.
I have managed to write a survey paper, published in high impact factor journal, a conference paper, a paper in a prestigious journal with minor revision which got retracted by my supervisor without my consent (I am first author but he submitted the paper).

I have been held in their office (husband and wife), and get humiliated and threatened for hours. I have been forced to pay 32euros of the revenue stamp for someone else.
My supervisors never gave me a PhD project so I had to come up with my own. Even though, I have been continuously threatened by taking the project from me and give it to somebody else.
My postdoc friend was continuously threatened to not get paid by the end of the month.

I have always been afraid that if I oppose such monsters, my kid will not have what to eat by the end of the month, and my wife diagnosed with multiple sclerosis will not have money to have her therapy in its precise date.

Although I am coming to the conclusion, that these behaviours should be opposed with severe punishments. There is no doubt that these punishments cannot come from inside the university, especially if this is happening to a foreigner in a country like Italy, but a denouncement in public channels is needed.

I am sure that if such stories reache the right persons, our supervisors will never get research grants and funding.

Long live the resistance.