My newly-made squad members are all apparently all being research so i can't do anything. they have been like this for a few days, how long will this last?

It takes 5000 research points to land on the mirror world. To get an indication how long this will take, you can check your pets' research potential. You find this on their profile at the bottom underneath Genetic Power and Degeneration. These numbers you add together from all your squad's pets. This is the (average) amount added to the counter every hour. I say average since it can vary up to 50% every time the score is tallied. 

At either rate, looking at your squad's pets, you have a total research potential of 70. This means that you will research for about 71 hours (5000/70), possibly a bit longer or shorter. 

A warning: Once you're on the mirror world and leave for whatever reason (change the squad members, being pushed off the map, leaving voluntarily, etc), you will have to research your way onto the mirror again!

To make your life easier for future mirror world visits: You can increase a pet's research potential! If you hover on the question mark next to Research Potential on their Profile, you can click on Details in the little pop-up window. This will take you to a page where you can check what your pets can do to increase their value.