OPINION Snails on the chase: How to cope with anxiety in an academic career Short title How to cope with anxiety in an academic career Long title Snails on the chase: How to cope with anxiety in an academic career Authors Fang Zhao 1 , Len Ole Schäfer 1 , Lars van Rijn 1 , Joachim Wöhrle 1 Author affiliation 1 Research Cluster D²L² at the FernUniversität in Hagen, Hagen, Germany Author bios Fang Zhao is junior research group leader of the research group Multimedia within the Research Cluster D²L² at FernUniversität in Hagen. She has previously worked at the University of Koblenz-Landau (DEU) and was a visiting scholar at University of California, Santa Barbara (USA), Lund University (SE), and University of Freiburg (DE). Her research interests are learning with texts and pictures, videos, interactive simulation and sequence learning under multitasking. Len Ole Schäfer is a researcher in the Research Cluster D²L² at FernUniversity in Hagen. He completed his doctorate in sociology and higher education research at the University of Bamberg (DE). Len was a visiting doctoral scholar at the University College London (UK). Currently, he leads the research project “Organizational Adaptivity in the German Higher Education Context” (OrA) and investigates in cooperation with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society organizational conditions that promote or inhibit digital teaching. Lars van Rijn is a research assistant at the Research Cluster D²L² and the Chair of Educational Theory and Media Pedagogy at the FernUniversität in Hagen. He is working as an educational scientist on the use of artificial intelligence for educational contexts in the research project “AI.EDU Research Lab”. His research interests are centered around the application of AI technology in education, learning analytics and self-regulated learning theory. Joachim Wöhrle is a post-doc working on the BMBF-funded LAMASS@Dilea project within the Research Cluster D²L² at the FernUniversität in Hagen. He has previously worked at the University of Groningen (NL), and the University of Siegen (DEU) on topics such as personality, attachment, intercultural adjustment and inclusion. Author social links Fang Zhao: ResearchGate Len Ole Schäfer: LinkedIn