scholarly journals Gender Inequity during the Ph.D.: Females in the Life Sciences Benefit Less from Their Integration into the Scientific Community

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurith Epstein ◽  
Daniel Lachmann
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Lead Author ◽  
Publication Productivity ◽  
Research Career ◽  
Gender Inequity ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Career Survey

Female researchers remain underrepresented in higher academic ranks, even within female-dominated fields, such as the life sciences. The phenomenon is often attributed to women’s lower publication productivity. The current article explores gender differences with respect to integration into the scientific community, pursued tasks during the Ph.D. (e.g., teaching and research), and publication productivity in the life sciences. Moreover, it explores how these variables relate to the intention of pursuing an academic research career. Survey data with recent Ph.D. graduates from the life sciences in Germany (N = 736) were analyzed through descriptive and multivariate analysis. Females had fewer publications as lead author (1.4 vs. 1.9, p = 0.05). There were no differences in pursued tasks, perceived integration into the scientific community, and co-authorship. However, Ph.D. characteristics affected females and males differently. Only male Ph.D. graduates benefited from being integrated into their scientific community by an increase in lead author publications. In contrast to male Ph.D. graduates, women’s academic career intentions were significantly affected by their integration into the scientific community and co-authorship. Results suggest that women may benefit less from their integration into the scientific community and may ascribe more importance to networks for their career progress.

scholarly journals Reflections on Being a Successful Academic Researcher

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Pather ◽  
Dan Remenyi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Academic Researcher ◽  
Research Career ◽  
Specific Research ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Research Uptake ◽  
Successful Academic

Research is central to the life of the career academic. However, the framework in which academic research is conducted is not generally well understood and neither is it often articulated or discussed. The literature tends to rather focus on issues in relation to specific research methodologies and the evaluation thereof. Additionally, previous research argues that it is common for university academics to have little or no formal preparation for their role as teachers. This paper posits that the same applies to that of the academic’s role as a researcher. It cannot be assumed that the mere obtaining of a Doctoral degree, prepares the novice academic for a research career. Early career academics are expected to acquire an understanding of how to survive as a researcher through a process more related to osmosis than to the principles of academic discourse. This paper commences with an overview of the origins of the academic career and the doctoral degree. Thereafter, it introspects the requirements to be a successful academic researcher. Aspects of the academic researcher’s agency in relation to personal values, characteristics, integrity, research uptake skills, as well as the benefits and challenges of a research career are explored. By unpacking the salient elements of what is required to be a successful academic researcher, this paper provides a basis for those who are considering a career in academe to make an assessment if such a pursuit is feasible. In addition, the paper provides a yardstick by which early or even mid‑career academic researchers may judge their progress towards being a successful researcher, thereby identifying areas for improvement.

scholarly journals Motives for Obtaining a Doctorate and Perceived Meaningfulness of Doctorates: A Comparison between Medicine and Life Sciences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurith Epstein ◽  
Johanna Huber ◽  
Kathrin Redies ◽  
Sonja Heuser ◽  
Daniel Lachmann
Keyword(s):  
Additional Data ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Career ◽  
Career Interest ◽  
Doctoral Graduates ◽  
Medical Graduates ◽  
Effective Interventions ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Career Motives

Abstract Background: In Germany, more than half of the students complete a doctorate in the life sciences and medicine. Thus the doctorate, which is supposed to pave the way for a research career, also seems to perform other functions. In medicine, there is a cliché that students earn doctorates for reasons of prestige but in the life sciences, there is an assumption that you will not succeed on the labor market without a doctorate. To date, we know little about the actual motives for earning a doctorate and its perceived meaningfulness after graduation. Methods: Motives for obtaining a doctorate from both subject groups were analyzed using data from the E-Prom study (N = 1518). For medicine, additional data from the Bavarian Graduate Study MediBAS (N = 570) were analyzed. Qualitative interview data from the E-Prom study (N = 28) were used to better understand the motives for obtaining a doctorate in their substance and to compare them with the retrospectively perceived meaningfulness. Results: In medicine, the motives of “customariness” and feared “career disadvantages” predominate. Approximately half of the medical doctoral graduates had little or no interest to do research during or after the doctorate. In the life sciences, customariness and feared career disadvantages are important motives, too. However, research (career) interest also receives high and significantly higher approval than in medicine. Moreover, female medical graduates express significantly lower research and career motives; the latter also applies to the life sciences. The qualitative analyzes indicate a close connection between career paths and justifications of meaningfulness of the doctorate in the life sciences. In medicine, justifications of meaningfulness are closely related to initial motives for obtaining a doctorate. Hence, people who only pursued a doctorate to bear a title accordingly justified their doctorate’s meaningfulness merely with its acquisition. Conclusion: Our results stress the need for greater promotion of (academic) research careers among medical students, as well as the promotion of female careers in and outside of academic research. Further investigations are necessary to understand the exact mechanisms behind our results and to develop effective interventions.

Cooperation and Competition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Peach
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Particle Physics ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Groups ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Multidisciplinary Research ◽  
Common Goal ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Research Sector

This chapter discusses the need for cooperation (or collaboration) to be balanced with competition, including between research groups, within a university or laboratory and between the academic research sector and industry. Healthy competition is a great motivator but unhealthy competition can be disastrous. While it is still possible for an individual scientist working alone or with a couple of graduate students or postdocs to make ground-breaking discoveries, today much experimental science requires large teams working collaboratively on a common goal or set of goals. While this trend is most evident in particle physics and astronomy, it is also present in the other physical sciences and the life sciences. Collaboration brings together more resources–physical, financial and intellectual–to address major challenges that would otherwise be beyond the scope of any individual or group. Multidisciplinary research and interdisciplinary research are examples of cooperation between different disciplines.

Research during psychiatric training as a predictor of future academic research career: the Maudsley experience

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
DJ Castle ◽  
S Refault ◽  
RM Murray
Keyword(s):  
Academic Psychiatry ◽  
Career Paths ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Psychiatric Training ◽  
Junior Doctors ◽  
Research Career ◽  
Future Career

SummaryJunior doctors who trained in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital between 1965 to 1975 were followed up at a mean of 17 years to ascertain whether pre-psychiatric experience or performance during training could predict future career paths. The most consistent predictor of a career in academic psychiatry was involvement in research during training.

scholarly journals A Risk-Based Strategy for Evaluating Mitigation Options for Process-Formed Compounds in Food

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Hanlon ◽  
Gregory P. Brorby ◽  
Mansi Krishan
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Decision Tree ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Technical Committee ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
Chemical Safety ◽  
The Public ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact

Processing (eg, cooking, grinding, drying) has changed the composition of food throughout the course of human history; however, awareness of process-formed compounds, and the potential need to mitigate exposure to those compounds, is a relatively recent phenomenon. In May 2015, the North American Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI North America) Technical Committee on Food and Chemical Safety held a workshop on the risk-based process for mitigation of process-formed compounds. This workshop aimed to gain alignment from academia, government, and industry on a risk-based process for proactively assessing the need for and benefit of mitigation of process-formed compounds, including criteria to objectively assess the impact of mitigation as well as research needed to support this process. Workshop participants provided real-time feedback on a draft framework in the form of a decision tree developed by the ILSI North America Technical Committee on Food and Chemical Safety to a panel of experts, and they discussed the importance of communicating the value of such a process to the larger scientific community and, ultimately, the public. The outcome of the workshop was a decision tree that can be used by the scientific community and could form the basis of a global approach to assessing the risks associated with mitigation of process-formed compounds.

Introductory lectures to the course of mechanics given by professor S.E. Khaykin in 30-s and 40-s of XX-th century (retrospective pedagogic analysis)

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-125
Author(s):  
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Yakuta ◽  
Aleksandr Sergeevich Iliushin ◽  
Ekaterina Valerevna Yakuta
Keyword(s):  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Science Museum ◽  
Educational Objectives ◽  
Xxth Century ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Physical Phenomena ◽  
The Way

The article is aimed at the retrospective pedagogic analysis of introductory lectures to the course of Mechanics given in 1934, 1937 and 1945 at the department of Physics in MSU by an outstanding educator professor Semen E. Khaykin. It is the frst attempt to carry out academic research of the author’s introductory lectures to the course of Mechanics by professor Khaykin from the Science Museum at the Department of Physics in MSU. The article provides an overview of the contents of each leсture, examines their major peculiarities and reveals specifc educational objectives professor Khaykin addressed in his course. The author of the article analyses the physical phenomena introduced in the lectures and studies the way material arrangement changed with the time. The author compares the series of introductory lectures to reveal the differences and makes an attempt to explain them by the social and political processes that took place in the country in the 30-s and the 40-s of the XXth century and affected the life and academic career of S. E. Khaykin.

scholarly journals Up or Out: Research Incentives and Career Prospects of Postdocs in Germany

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Fitzenberger ◽  
Ute Schulze
Keyword(s):  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Academic Training ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
The University ◽  
Research Incentives ◽  
Phd Program ◽  
Program Show ◽  
University Reforms

Abstract Academic careers in Germany have been under debate for a while. We conduct a survey among postdocs in Germany to analyze the perceptions and attitudes of postdocs regarding their research incentives, their working conditions, and their career prospects. We conceptualize the career prospects of a postdoc in a life-cycle perspective of transitions from academic training to academic or non-academic jobs. Only about half of the postdocs sees strong incentives for academic research, but there is quite a strong confidence to succeed in an academic career. Furthermore, postdocs who attended a PhD program show better career prospects and higher research incentives compared to others. Academic career prospects and motivation are strongest for assistant professors. Apart from this small group, however, postdocs report only a small impact of the university reforms of the last decade. Female postdocs show significantly higher research incentives but otherwise we find little gender differences. Finally, good prospects in nonacademic jobs are not associated with a reduction in the motivation for research.

The Life Sciences and the Public: Is Science Too Important to Be Left to the Scientists?

1984 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm L. Goggin
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lay Public

The scientific community is divided over the question of who should govern science. Most scientists are comfortable with a governing scheme which leaves science in the hands of scientists. Dissident scientists, with support from active members of the lay public, believe that science is too important to be left to scientists (Policy Research Incorporated, 1977; Miller, Prewitt, and Pearson, 1980).

It takes a village to raise an ECR

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette Browning ◽  
Kirrilly Thompson ◽  
Drew Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Research Career ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Track Record

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe organisational strategies that support early career researchers in building a successful track record which can lead to a successful academic research career. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on more than a decade of experience designing, implementing and evaluating professional development programmes for early career researchers in universities. Findings If an early career researcher is to achieve long-term success, the first five years after graduating with a doctorate are critical in establishing long-term career success. Professional development programmes for early career researchers are more successful if they are supported by organisational strategies around workload, performance management and accountability. Originality/value If implemented, these organisational strategies can assist early career researchers to build a successful track record, which can lead to a successful research career and contribute towards increasing aggregate institutional research performance for universities.

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