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On the shoulders of students? The contribution of PhD students to the advancement of knowledge
Abstract
Using the participation in peer reviewed publications of all doctoral
students in Quebec over the 2000-2007 period this paper provides the first
large scale analysis of their research effort. It shows that PhD students
contribute to about a third of the publication output of the province, with
doctoral students in the natural and medical sciences being present in a higher
proportion of papers published than their colleagues of the social sciences and
humanities. Collaboration is an important component of this socialization:
disciplines in which student collaboration is higher are also those in which
doctoral students are the most involved in peer-reviewed publications. In terms
of scientific impact, papers co-signed by doctorate students obtain
significantly lower citation rates than other Quebec papers, except in natural
sciences and engineering. Finally, this paper shows that involving doctoral
students in publications is positively linked with degree completion and
ulterior career in research.
... It is generally measured with the number of scientific publications and citation counts to and from these publications (Aslan, Aç›kgöz, & Günay, 2021). The number of citations for the publications extracted from dissertations can be used as an indicator to measure their scientific impact (Lariviere, 2012). Scientific impact of the dissertations certifies their authors' contribution to knowledge production. ...
... Kousha and Thelwall (2019) investigated the impacts of 77,884 American dissertations through the citation counts derived from Google Scholar and Mendeley databases. Likewise, the contribution of the PhD students' dissertations completed in the fields of arts and humanities, health sciences, natural sciences and engineering and social sciences was examined through the citation measures by Lariviere (2012). Osman, Alemna and Kumah (2018) analyzed the citation patterns of 35 doctoral dissertations in their study. ...
... The number of the published articles from the dissertations in the SSCI, SCI, SCI-Expanded, ACHI and ESCI indexed journals is quite limited. This could be due to the fact that PhD students in the arts and humanities and social sciences are unlikely to participate in publication-related research activities during their doctoral education (Lariviere, 2012). Indeed, these activities are hardly ever involved in the Turkish doctoral programs. ...
This study aims to analyze the contributions of the doctoral dissertations completed in the disciplines of economy, law, psychology, political science, and international relations to the literature and practice through the citations to the articles extracted from these dissertations using bibliometric analysis. These disciplines were included in the present study as they were determined as the priority ones in the training of the human resources by the Turkish Council of Higher Education (CoHE). 88 dissertations were reached in the National Thesis Center database of CoHE in 2018 and subjected to document analysis. The published scientific studies based on these dissertations were primarily searched within authors’ websites, CoHE Academic, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Education Resources Information Center, ResearchGate and Google Scholar. No data could be found for 61 dissertations out of 88 ones. The citations to the articles derived from 17 dissertations, which were searched in Google Scholar, ResearchGate, SCOPUS, SOBIAD and Web of Science databases were bibliometrically analyzed. Only 9 dissertations were cited. While the primary data were used in the dissertations completed in the discipline of psychology, the secondary data were mostly used in the other dissertations. These results indicate that the contribution of the dissertations to the literature and practice is quite limited. Thus, the researchers turned their attention to the contribution of the dissertations produced in other disciplines in the field of social sciences. Several suggestions (e.g. developing researchers’ research skills, studying priority research topics in the Turkish context) were also made to increase the contribution of the dissertations to the literature and practice.
... • Instead of sophisticated machine learning models, might simple deterministic rules possibly be sufficient for the identification of cumulative dissertation papers? This question is motivated by the approach of Larivière (2012), detailed further below. • What is the trade-off between precision and recall in the results of classification models for this task? ...
... In the largest scale study to date, Larivière (2012) investigated the publications of Québec Ph.D. students in terms of peer reviewed periodical publication output and citation impact in comparison to other publications from Québec without Ph.D. candidate co-authors. In this study, a list of all Ph.D. students' names was matched against author names of Web of Science articles with at least one Québec address. ...
... Note thatLarivière (2012) did in fact manually post-process their data after basic matching, so this observation is not intended as a criticism of their approach. ...
In this study we propose and evaluate a method to automatically identify the journal publications that are related to a Ph.D. thesis using bibliographical data of both items. We build a manually curated ground truth dataset from German cumulative doctoral theses that explicitly list the included publications, which we match with records in the Scopus database. We then test supervised classification methods on the task of identifying the correct associated publications among high numbers of potential candidates using features of the thesis and publication records. The results indicate that this approach results in good match quality in general and with the best results attained by the “random forest” classification algorithm.
... While an outright rejection decision is typical, it still reflects both doctoral candidates' and society's wasted effort (Gillingham et al., 1991). The persistence of "up to standard rejected" and "below standards accepted" (Granovsky et al., 1992, p. 375) demands "transparency and public accountability" in the review processes (Langfeldt & Kyvik, 2011, p. 199), and the application of publishing a few papers before the oral defense (e.g., Blunden-Ellis, 1996;Larivière et al., 2012) in some contexts. However, while a publication-based dissertation is preferable (Hagen, 2010), the existence of ghost authors and/or third-party writers is possible (Aitchison & Mowbray, 2016). ...
... In Sweden, the standard of a doctoral dissertation depends on publishing papers in international peer-reviewed journals (Breimer, 2010). The assessment can be public or private in Canada, with variations among universities (Chen, 2011) that prefer granting a doctoral degree based on publications (Larivière, 2012). A publication-based dissertation/only publications (Mason et al., 2020) and a monologue-based dissertation are both accepted based on examiners' reviews with an oral examination (Clarke, 2013) and are both debatable and relatively objective (Rigby & Jones, 2020) in the UK. ...
... However, none of these countries seems to have the complicated external review system being practiced in China. This is also evidenced by reviewing previous literature in other countries that are similar or dissimilar (e.g., Aittola, 2008;Chen, 2011;Larivière, 2012;Myklebust & Withers, 2017) doctoral dissertation assessment procedures, but not identical to that of China. This interpretation has at least one implication at the higher education level, mainly internalization. ...
Aim/Purpose: Our study explores the perspectives of international doctoral graduates on (national) dissertation assessment in China. Background: In the absence of national standards or in the presence of impractical ones for assessing doctoral dissertations, these factors have inevitably led to what Granovsky et al. (1992, p. 375) called “up to standard rejected” and “below standard accepted.” Improving upon this debate, this study examines the lived experiences of seven doctoral graduates who have completed their doctoral degrees in a leading university in China. Methodology: An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) method was used, which entails seven participant observations, seven semi-structured e-interviews, and 29 external reviews. Contribution: In the present study, we addressed the issue of doctoral dissertation assessment standards with a view to enhancing understanding of the quality of doctoral education. It emphasizes the strengths of this aspect in China and critically describes the weaknesses based on the experiences of doctoral graduates in China. Findings: Among the major findings of this study are: (a) the external review of the dissertations presented in the literature review appears to be extremely unique in comparison to the countries discussed in the literature and the countries of the participants (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Yemen); (b) the national assessment strengthens higher education on a macro level, but is detrimental at the micro-level; and (c) while external reviews appear credible as a policy towards the standardization of doctoral dissertation assessment, this credibility evaporates when one considers the quality of reviews provided and the motivation of reviewers to pass or reject a dissertation, including the supervisor’s exclusion from this process. Recommendations for Practitioners: Students seeking a doctoral degree or dissertation should become familiar with the A-Z detail of the requirements for the degree and thesis. In addition to meeting this overt requirement, their efforts must also be directed to meet the covert requirements, including the requirements of the external reviewers, their supervisors, and the country’s laws. There is a necessity for external reviewers to rethink their decisions and attempt to assess objectively, putting aside their personal views and preferences. There is a need to re-examine the flexibility granted to external reviewers for making decisions regarding doctoral degrees. Recommendation for Researchers: Future research should consider involving an increased number of parties in the conflict between doctoral students, supervisors, and external reviewers. Impact on Society: The Chinese government allocates substantial resources for doctoral studies for both international and local students. The spending of government funds on a doctoral student for four years or more, and then the degree is decided by an external reviewer, is uneconomical on the level of financial capital and human capital. Doctoral students are also human beings, and it does not seem logical that one should judge the quality of their efforts over the course of three or more years by reading the doctoral dissertation once. While they were pursuing their doctoral degrees, they kept their families apart, they lived alone, struggled to make it through hardships, and were easily destroyed. Future Research: In the future, more interviews may be conducted with respondents belonging to a variety of universities in China, including Chinese students. Additionally, supervisors and external reviewers (if available) should be included. Last but not least, including decision-makers in Chinese higher education can give future research more credibility.
... The role of supervisors in shaping the manuscripts of doctoral graduates for publication has been widely analyzed (e.g., Li & Flowerdew, 2007;Kamler, 2008;Catterall et al., 2011;Larivière, 2011;Maher et al., 2014;Lei & Hu, 2015;Martinez & Graf, 2016). Lavirière (2011) found that the supervisors of disciplines outside humanities and social sciences tended to act as mediators when the postgraduates and their supervisors cooperate to write and publish papers, which perhaps leaves space for the probe into disciplinary differences in text mediation. ...
... Lavirière (2011) found that the supervisors of disciplines outside humanities and social sciences tended to act as mediators when the postgraduates and their supervisors cooperate to write and publish papers, which perhaps leaves space for the probe into disciplinary differences in text mediation. Another interesting discovery (Catterall et al., 2011;Larivière, 2011) revealed that although their postgraduates indeed turned to them for help, some supervisors interviewed did not think they were competent for mediation because they themselves had not received clear and systematic guidance. Feedback from these supervisors is very likely to be true. ...
In order to provide an overview of the research on the influence of text mediation upon the academic identity of EAP authors, this paper reviewed the available literature on academic identity, identity construction in academic writing, text mediation and its influence upon academic writing. It was found that different mediators indeed play roles in the drafting or publication of manuscripts by English for Academic Purposes (EAP) authors, especially novice ones. The final version of a manuscript was thus formulated by both the named author(s) and many unnamed others, which covers the metadiscourse employed in the very manuscript. Since metadiscourse helps to shape the identity of the author, the mediators correspondingly exert influence upon the identity construction of the academic authors. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of text mediation upon the author’s identity. In view of this, this paper proposed the prospects for further research.
... The reputation for academic excellence can, in turn, result in a greater ability to attract the best high-potential students for research to doctoral programs (Grunig 1997). Table 1 Research productivity factors The literature that identifies several factors related to research productivity seldom weight in on any one factor other than quantity of research staff, overlooking, for instance, the number of students enrolled in doctoral programs, which this research identifies as significant factor, though a few previous studies acknowledge the contribution of the students of doctoral programs to the production of publications, for instance one by Nettles and Millett (2006) and another by Larivière (2012) for the USA and Canada, respectively. However, more recent research increasingly delves into the connection between doctoral students and research productivity, pointing to how doctoral students must produce high quality research to progress in academia and secure ongoing employment (Merga and Mason 2021b). ...
... More than a few universities may be tempted to boost their research output by acquiring intellectual capital instead of growing their own. The relationship between the number of established researchers with a PhD and research productivity aside, the number of students enrolled in doctoral programs is a strong predicting variable, worldwide, and consistent with the three studies previously mentioned from Nettles and Millett (2006), Larivière (2012), and Helene and Ribeiro (2011). Baird (1991) anticipated more than three decades ago that the explanation may be due to the participation of doctoral students in research projects that professors would use for publications of joint authorship with their students. ...
Knowledge is a signifcant driver of economic growth. For higher education institutions (HEIs)-prime knowledge generators- as well as for nations, research productivity is a priority. The contribution of PhD students to research productivity is not entirely visible. This lack of visibility may have implications for policy making at
the institutional and national level. This research employed a bi-level, mixed-method
approach: qualitative at the microlevel (institutionally and individually) for inductive insights about the connection of PhD programs and students to research productivity; and quantitative at the macro-level, analyzing data from 78 countries,
from 2014 to 2019. We found a statistically signifcant correlation between the number of PhD students and the quantity of papers published: over 90% (R2=0.904, F(1.365)=3431.9, p<0.01). Participant observation provided theoretical insights
about the “how” and “why” of the student´s connection to research productivity.
... Bibliometric literature has referred to Bourdieu's concept of power as the creation or consolidation of asymmetric relations in the field and has focused on topics as diverse as gender inequality (Olinto & Leta, 2011), language bias in evaluating research (Frey & Pommerehne, 1988;Vasconcelos, Sorenson et al., 2009), disparities between senior and junior researchers (Larivière, 2012), and the ranking of scientists, journals, and universities (Gingras, 2016). ...
... Several studies by Larivière (Larivière 2010a(Larivière , 2010b focus on the junior staff's socialization into their role of independent researchers. In PhD programs, acquiring the habitus of the field explains the correlation between a higher number of articles written by Québécois PhD students throughout their doctoral program and their later prolificacy after completing the doctoral program (Larivière, 2012). More recently, Bes, Lamy, and Maisonobe (2021) have provided a compelling analysis of the socialization of PhD students based on copublishing between doctoral students and members of thesis committees at a French university. ...
This study is a critical review aimed at assessing the reception received in bibliometric research by the theories and concepts developed by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The dataset consists of 182 documents, including original articles, editorial material, review articles, conference papers, monographs, and doctoral dissertations. A quantitative analysis was used to establish the authors and countries that most frequently make use of Bourdieu’s theories, as well as the most popular concepts, which were identified as “field”, followed by “symbolic capital” and “social capital.” Then, the article discusses the impact of Bourdieusian key concepts such as “field.” Among the findings, the following are noteworthy: the integration of his field theory into pre-existing bibliometric conceptualizations of research fields, especially when power relations are problematized; the use of the “symbolic capital” in connection with citation analysis and altmetrics; and greater interest for Bourdieu’s theories compared to his methods, although some sources have used Bourdieu’s preferred statistical method, correspondence analysis. Moreover, Bourdieu’s theoretical impact is noticeable in research on journals, university rankings, early career researchers, and gender. The paper’s conclusions point to future research paths based on concepts less used in the bibliometric literature, such as ‘delegation.’
Peer Review
https://publons.com/publon/10.1162/qss_a_00232
... In these disciplines, collaboration leading to coauthorship is a basic aspect of successful mentorship of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers (13,16,17). However, in practice, collaboration and group norms vary substantially across disciplines and over time, which complicates efforts to estimate scientific labor's effect on scientific productivity (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). Past studies have found correlations between academic labor and faculty productivity but have tended to be cross-sectional, based on small sample sizes, or focused on either individual disciplines or only certain types of labor (25)(26)(27) [but see (20)]. ...
... However, in practice, collaboration and group norms vary substantially across disciplines and over time, which complicates efforts to estimate scientific labor's effect on scientific productivity (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). Past studies have found correlations between academic labor and faculty productivity but have tended to be cross-sectional, based on small sample sizes, or focused on either individual disciplines or only certain types of labor (25)(26)(27) [but see (20)]. No studies have examined the role of funded scientific labor on faculty group sizes. ...
Faculty at prestigious institutions dominate scientific discourse, producing a disproportionate share of all research publications. Environmental prestige can drive such epistemic disparity, but the mechanisms by which it causes increased faculty productivity remain unknown. Here, we combine employment, publication, and federal survey data for 78,802 tenure-track faculty at 262 PhD-granting institutions in the American university system to show through multiple lines of evidence that the greater availability of funded graduate and postdoctoral labor at more prestigious institutions drives the environmental effect of prestige on productivity. In particular, greater environmental prestige leads to larger faculty-led research groups, which drive higher faculty productivity, primarily in disciplines with group collaboration norms. In contrast, productivity does not increase substantially with prestige for faculty publications without group members or for group members themselves. The disproportionate scientific productivity of elite researchers can be largely explained by their substantial labor advantage rather than inherent differences in talent.
... Tyrimai rodo, kad doktorantai dažnai patiria su laiko trūkumu susijusią įtampą bei nesaugumą dėl neapibrėžtumo, neformalių taisyklių neišmanymo ir neaiškių karjeros perspektyvų (Appel & Dahlgren, 2003;Kurtz-Costes et al., 2006). Situaciją neretai sunkina sudėtingi santykiai su universiteto bendruomene, konkurencija ir dažnos vertinimo situacijos, kai ne iki galo aiškūs kriterijai (Stubb et al., 2011;2012). Lietuvos jaunųjų mokslininkų sąjungos (LJMS, 2019) atliktas doktorantų pasitenkinimo studijomis tyrimas taip pat atskleidė, kad doktorantai tik rezervuotai vertina savo studijų kokybę ir materialinę bazę. ...
... Doktorantų patirtis nagrinėjančių tyrimų lauke klausimai apie studijų sąlygas ir pačių doktorantų gerovę dažniausiai yra nagrinėjami atsietai. Kol vieni tyrėjai gilinasi į studijų tikslų siekimą sunkinančias aplinkybes (pavyzdžiui, Stubb et al., 2011;2012), kiti analizuoja neoptimalius sveikatos, savijautos ir produktyvumo rodiklius (pavyzdžiui, Lavecque et al., 2017;Sorrel et al., 2022). Visgi, nagrinėjant subjektyvią doktorantų patirtį ir galbūt objektyvias jos priežastis atskirai, sumenksta tyrėjų galimybės pasiūlyti sprendimus, kurie leistų kurti gerovei palankesnes sąlygas. ...
Creating decent conditions for doctoral students is a challenge that higher education institutions do not always manage to cope with. This tendency is also indirectly seen in the indicators of the well-being of doctoral students. The purpose of this study was to distinguish different well-being groups of doctoral students and to identify predictors of belonging to them. 633 doctoral students from various fields of science participated in the study, and were asked to answer questions about their study engagement, exhaustion, and the main study environment characteristics (demands and resources). The applied cluster analysis revealed that according to study engagement and burnout, four groups of doctoral students’ well-being can be distinguished, i.e., successful, exhausted, burned-out and indifferent doctoral students. Regression analysis made it possible to distinguish four study environmental characteristics that differentiate different groups of doctoral students’ well-being. Fewer opportunities for development, lack of support from the dissertation supervisor, higher study load, and more frequent encounters with conflicting expectations were associated with a lower probability of belonging to the group of doctoral students of the highest well-being. The results show that the antecedents for the well-being of doctoral students should be sought in the institutional environment, which facilitates or complicates the implementation of the tasks. The article also discusses suggestions based on the research results to improve the process of training doctoral students.
... There is no doubt that graduate students are considered an essential part of the academic workforce. Larivière (2012) reinforces this importance with evidence of the significant contribution of Ph.D. students to the advancement of knowledge through their participation in the publication process. The author's expression "on the shoulders of students" brings the real meaning of this contribution, strengthened by the mounting pressure on PhDs to publish their results (Horta et al., 2018). ...
... Positive effects in humanities, social sciences, linguistics, literature, and arts regarding books and book chapters provide new evidence on the effectiveness of research investments in 'neglected' fields. This kind of analysis has recognized limitations since bibliometric databases generally do not cover research output in venues other than journal articles and that are written in languages other than English (Hammarfelt, 2016;Larivière, 2012). McManus and Neves (2021b) complement this debate within the Brazilian context with evidence that humanities and social sciences impacts may be more difficult to evaluate than in other research fields since they involve interaction with society and government in multiple and not linear ways. ...
This paper presents an impact evaluation of scholarships, within the Brazilian context, on the scientific performance of Ph.D. holders. The objective is to measure the scholarly production of beneficiaries from FAPESP’s (São Paulo Research Foundation) Ph.D. Scholarship Program against unsuccessful applicants. The studied population includes all the individuals who applied for Ph.D. scholarships between 2003 and 2017 and were either granted or rejected by FAPESP. Our evaluation employed a quasi-experimental with ex post facto design. The treatment group comprehends awarded individuals that have completed their Ph.D. degree. The control groups comprehend individuals who: (a) had their application rejected but completed their Ph.D. with scholarships from other funding agencies; and (b) who were rejected but completed their Ph.D. without any scholarship. Additionally, we also conducted an analysis comparing FAPESP awardees with best-rejected individuals. Data collection was carried out for all knowledge fields on large secondary databases (including Scopus and Google Scholar for citations and H-index, Lattes Curriculum Vitae, FAPESP, and CAPES—Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). We used exact matching for the analysis. We find that the number of publications, citations, and H-index is higher for FAPESP scholarship holders than for those rejected. The “FAPESP scholarship effect” is much higher when compared to those who did not have support from funding agencies to complete their Ph.D. studies. Therefore, our results vindicate the importance of scholarships for doctoral students to produce qualified scientific knowledge in an emerging economy like Brazil.
... Existem poucos estudos na literatura internacional sobre a efetiva contribuição das teses de doutorado para a produção científica. Segundo um autor que tem se dedicado ao tema, as teses contribuem com um terço da produção científica da província do Quebec, com destaque para os das áreas de ciências naturais e médicas, mas, em geral, a importância das teses na produção científica tem se reduzido ao longo do tempo (Larivière 2012;Larivière, Zuccala e Archambault 2008). ...
Este trabalho teve por objetivo obter uma visão abrangente das áreas de pesquisa, inovação, educação superior e pós-graduação no Brasil, com ênfase em uma análise mais detalhada dos conteúdos das teses e dissertações de doutorado e mestrado.. O que se observa é que cada um destes componentes se desenvolveu e funciona segundo uma lógica própria e não necessariamente coincidente. A pesquisa mais significativa está concentrada em um segmento do sistema universitário e em alguns institutos isolados, as despesas públicas em ciência, tecnologia e inovação não estão associadas, maioritariamente, à pesquisa e inovação enquanto tais, e a formação de doutores e mestres só em parte converge com a formação de pesquisadores. Embora não seja uma conclusão surpreendente, ela traz implicações de políticas públicas importantes que deixam de existir quando se desconsidera a pluralidade de funções de cada um destes setores.
... All this makes the development of a research plan with clear milestones and deadlines all the more important, as organic teamwork usually does not occur. This is different in the natural sciences, where PhD students are usually part of a larger research team (Larivière, 2012;Torka, 2018) and usually receive more financial support through departmental programmes (Sverdlik et al., 2018). These PhD students often do not have their own individual projects but are responsible for part of a collective project. ...
PhD students come to work in academic environments that are characterized by long working hours and work done on non-standard hours due to increasing job demands and metric evaluation systems. Yet their long working hours and work at non-standard hours are often seen as a logical consequence of their intellectual quest and academic calling and may even serve as a proxy for their research engagement. Against that background, quantitative data from 514 PhD students were used to unravel the complex relationships between different aspects of time use and PhD students' work engagement. While the results support the academia as a calling thesis to some extent, they also show that the relationships between long and non-standard working hours and research engagement are partly negated by the fact that the same working time characteristics lead to perceived time pressure and lack of time sovereignty, which in turn negatively affects their engagement. Moreover, the mechanism behind this negation varies across scientific disciplines. These subjective working time characteristics are the same alarm signals that are flagged as risk factors in academic staff for occupational stress, burnout, and work-life imbalance and thus cannot be ignored.
... This enabled an unbiased comparison of the performance trends between conditions prior to the mobility event. In addition, because the vast majority of PhD students (especially in the natural sciences and health sciences) publish at least one paper with their PhD affiliation (Larivière, 2012;Waaijer et al., 2016), this helps ensure that we are covering researchers who started their academic career in Europe. Moreover, we only included researchers who moved to the USA before 2017. ...
Research on scientific careers finds a mover’s advantage. International migration correlates with increased visibility and productivity. However, if scientists who move internationally, on average, enter into more prestigious employments than they came from, extant research may overestimate the direct performance gains associated with international moves. Building on insights from the sociology of science and studies of international researcher mobility, we examine how changes in employment prestige shape international movers’ performance returns to mobility. We follow a cohort of 167,014 European scientists to identify individuals that move to the USA and pair these migrants to non-mobile scientists with identical home institutions, research fields, and genders, giving a final sample of 3978 researchers. Using a difference-in-differences design, we show a substantial increase in the publishing rates and scientific impact of transatlantic migrants, compared to non-mobile scientists. However, most of the movers’ mobility-related boost in citation and journal impact is attributable to changes in employment prestige. In contrast, we find limited effects of employment prestige on changes in migrants’ publication rates. Overall, our study suggests large variations in the outcomes of transatlantic migration and reaffirms the citation-related “visibility advantage” tied to prestigious institutional locations.
... This, in turn, can only leave the actors in the system disoriented and place the responsibility on the shoulders of the individual, in many cases, Ph.D. students. Given the large share of international publications for which Ph.D. students are responsible as first authors (Larivière, 2012), this does not seem to be an individual problem but rather an overall scientific challenge. In the worst case, an individual decision can then fall back on these persons in all severity, as a hypothetical example illustrates. ...
Shortcomings in the area of open-access publishing are repeatedly criticized and discussed in the scientific community. Meanwhile, there are initiatives such as the DORA declaration , which aim to implement improvement and sustainability at specific points of the system. Regrettably, it can be observed at the same time that corresponding intentions are only partially realized. Simultaneously, status groups such as Ph.D. students, which are comparatively low in the science system, bear a burden or dilemma: All too often, they have to choose between improving their own career prospects and what can be called sustainable and good scientific practice. However, such decisions should not be imposed on those who hold a lower and insecure position in the scientific system. Rather, decision-makers at scientific institutions must finally begin to implement the DORA recommendations consistently or renounce them.
... As often analyzed and commented, researchers still in training frequently fulfill essential research tasks (Larivière, 2012;Bozeman and Youtie, 2017;Van Rooij et al., 2021). While this expanded role and responsibility of PhD researchers within the production of research knowledge may attract more talented emerging scientists and researchers to join the academic endeavor, despite the often short-term appointments, it is still unclear whether current recruitment strategies are aligned and reflects the long-term availability of tenured academic positions. ...
... Writing groups, in any form, constitute a powerful learning practice that enhances collaboration, academic identity, a sense of belonging, feedback, and productivity (Chakraborty et al., 2021;Hradsky et al., 2021). Furthermore, when these networks open up opportunities for the students to publish their work, positive shorter and longer-term outcomes can ensue, such as successful degree completion and ulterior academic advancement as part of a future career in research (Larivière, 2012). ...
Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to explore doctoral students’ perceived resilience and the coping strategies they choose to employ to overcome challenging circumstances during their studies. Background: Doctoral students often experience barriers which may include personal, professional, academic, and institutional-related challenges. The students’ ability to recover from any burdensome situations is essential for their progress, motivation, and well-being. Methodology: The data for this study were gathered utilising qualitative interviews conducted with a diverse cohort of thirteen doctoral candidates enrolled at a single higher education institution in the United Kingdom. These participants were deliberately chosen to encompass a range of backgrounds, including international and domestic students, varying study statuses and stages within their doctoral programs (full-time or part-time, and at the beginning, middle, or end of their studies), as well as differing funding situations (either funded or self-funded). The Grounded Theory methodology was employed as an appropriate analytical framework, providing a systematic set of procedures that facilitated the elucidation of the participants’ conceptualizations and the significance they attributed to the concept of resilience throughout their doctoral pursuits. Contribution: Empirical studies have explored the stressors and motivations of doctoral students’ journeys, but little is known about the in-depth investigation of the choices students make to respond to adversity and how they demonstrate resilience. This study aimed to fill this gap in the relevant literature. Findings: Five emergent contextual conditions represented circumstances of adversity for the study participants. These were relevant to five thematic areas: (1) supervision and supervisory support; (2) key milestones and challenges inherent to the doctoral journey (i.e., self-regulation and finding a daily working routine, data collection, and analysis, the writing process); (3) personal and family-related expectations and responsibilities; (4) study status related considerations (e.g., being an international and/or a part-time student); and (5) challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings demonstrated doctoral students’ state of psychological capital, inner strength, and persistence that they considered in their attempt to employ varied strategies to tackle challenging circumstances. Recommendations for Practitioners: The findings are transferable to different populations of doctoral students from diverse disciplines. Different students may be able to relate to the doctoral-related experiences that are reported and interpreted in this paper through the Grounded Theory analytic lens. This may enhance their sense of relatability with like-minded peers and help them realise that they are not alone in the challenges presented along the doctoral journey. Most importantly, the institutional-related challenges presented in this study will help raise awareness for institutions to employ strategies on human capital and academic identity by placing a stronger emphasis on practical solutions that would encourage, enable, and empower doctoral students to construct their identities. Recommendation for Researchers: The study aims to increase the scholarly knowledge of doctoral students’ resilience and coping mechanisms that they employ during the doctoral journey. Researchers can develop a resilience scale using the results of this in-depth study to understand doctoral students’ perceptions and experiences on a larger scale. The scale will enable students, supervisors, and institutions more broadly to ascertain resilience/psychological capital that students may demonstrate during the doctoral journey based on targeted interventions that can be put in place to support students’ work, progress, and overall doctoral success. Impact on Society: The stressors associated with the doctoral journey may cause obstacles for students to progress and can affect timely completion to the extent that dropping out may become an unavoidable outcome and an obvious decision for some students. During academic challenges, doctoral students’ well-being and mental health are likely to suffer. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated academic challenges even more. It is imperative for educational scholars and researchers to explore how doctoral students perceive and respond to adversity to strategise appropriate interventions that can be designed and put into place to offer support and guidance to facilitate progress and maximise success. Future Research: Further research can extend the study’s findings with the aim to increase transferability in other educational contexts and contents. The findings offer ground for the development of a resilience/psychological capital scale by drawing on the five thematic areas and their key components. The scale can help guide the development of targeted interventions to support doctoral students’ work.
... While the gender gap is defined in terms of single scientists, it must be acknowledged that much publishing involves more than the focal author (Chuang and Ho 2014, Larivière 2012, Wager et al. 2015. Not only co-authors, but research assistants, co-workers, technicians, conference participants, and many others contribute with work, ideas, and suggestions. ...
... While the gender gap is defined in terms of single scientists, it must be acknowledged that much publishing involves more than the focal author (Chuang and Ho 2014, Larivière 2012, Wager et al. 2015. Not only co-authors, but research assistants, co-workers, technicians, conference participants, and many others contribute with work, ideas, and suggestions. ...
We study whether student-advisor gender and race composition matters for publication productivity of Ph.D. students in South Africa. We consider all Ph.D. students in STEM graduating between 2000 and 2014, after the recent systematic introduction of doctoral programs in this country. We investigate the joint effects of gender and race for the whole sample and looking separately at the sub-samples of (1) white-white; (2) black-black; and (3) black-white student-advisor couples. We find significant productivity differences between male and female students. These disparities are more pronounced for female students working with male advisors when looking at the joint effects of gender and race for the white-white and black-black student-advisor pairs. We also explore whether publication productivity differences change significantly for students with a high, medium, or low “productivity-profile”. We find that female productivity gaps are U-shaped over the range of productivity. Female students working with male advisors have more persistent productivity gaps over the productivity distribution, while female students with a high (or low) “productivity-profile” studying with female advisors are as productive as male students with similar “productivity-profile” studying with male advisors.
... It is possible that multiple outputs emanate from the same study, an increased likelihood when this is the research of PhD scholars. As noted by Larivière (2012), one third of all research publications are produced by doctoral scholars. ...
Work and employment are a significant constituent part of tourism and are gaining ground as an area of research. This review paper offers a critical reflection on the field of tourism work and employment. Drawing from two historical review papers and new empirical analysis, themes within the literature are identified, providing an overview of the current focus and scope of research. This is followed by an exploration of traditions of work published within Annals of Tourism Research, from 1973 to 2020. Driven by the imperative to better understand the tourism workforce, the review offers observations on the current body of work and a consideration of future research foci. Conclusions focus on assessing evidence for the maturity of the field of tourism work and employment research.
... Academics experience growing pressure to include graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in their own research as qualified resources who can conduct both teaching and research tasks that academics themselves are less able to devote time to. Unsurprisingly, a substantial proportion of academic research is now contributed by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (Larivière, 2012). These practices inevitably foster some imbalances between disciplines. ...
... Articles with more authors tend to be more cited (Katz & Hicks, 1997), but this varies between fields (Abramo & D'Angelo, 2015), countries (Thelwall & Maflahi, 2020), and over time . Co-authorship benefits seem likely to differ substantially between collaboration types, such as peer collaborations compared to mentor-mentee collaborations (Larivière, 2012), for large-scale collaborations (Thelwall, 2020a) and for long-term collaborations (Bu et al., 2018a). Internationally co-authored articles also tend to be more cited, despite not being more novel (Wagner et al., 2019). ...
Academic research often involves teams of experts, and it seems reasonable to believe that successful main authors or co-authors would tend to help produce better research. This article investigates an aspect of this across science with an indirect method: the extent to which the publishing record of an article’s authors associates with the citation impact of the publishing journal (as a proxy for the quality of the article). The data is based on author career publishing evidence for journal articles 2014–20 and the journals of articles published in 2017. At the Scopus broad field level, international correlations and country-specific regressions for five English-speaking nations (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK and USA) suggest that first author citation impact is more important than co-author citation impact, but co-author productivity is more important than first author productivity. Moreover, author citation impact is more important than author productivity. There are disciplinary differences in the results, with first author productivity surprisingly tending to be a disadvantage in the physical sciences and life sciences, at least in the sense of associating with lower impact journals. The results are limited by the regressions only including domestic research and a lack of evidence-based cause-and-effect explanations. Nevertheless, the data suggests that impactful team members are more important than productive team members, and that whilst an impactful first author is a science-wide advantage, an experienced first author is often not.
... The weak significance of the coefficient may reflect this fact. It is the number of hours spent supervising students that pays dividends in terms of scholarly publication output, hence highlighting the important role of graduate students in this regard (Larivière, 2012). Investing the same amount of supervising time with their graduate students as men do is slightly more beneficial for women (see regression 4 in Table 1), and so is devoting more time to research (see regression 5 in Table 1). ...
A large body of literature on gender differences in scientific publication output has clearly established that women scientists publish less that men do. Yet, no single explanation or group of explanations satisfactorily accounts for this difference, which has been called the “productivity puzzle”. To provide a more refined portrait of the scientific publication output of women in relation to that of their male peers, we conducted a web-based survey in 2016 of individual researchers across all African countries, except Libya. The resulting 6,875 valid questionnaires submitted by respondents in the STEM, Health Science and SSH fields were analyzed using multivariate regressions on the self-reported number of articles published in the preceding 3 years. Controlling for a variety of variables including career stage, workload, mobility, research field, and collaboration, we measured the direct and moderating effect of gender on scientific production of African researchers. Our results show that, while women's scientific publication output is positively affected by collaboration and age (impediments to women's scientific output decrease later in their careers), it is negatively impacted by care-work and household chores, limited mobility, and teaching hours. Women are as prolific when they devote the same hours to other academic tasks and raise the same amount of research funding as their male colleagues. Our results lead us to argue that the standard academic career model, relying on continuous publications and regular promotions, assumes a masculine life cycle that reinforces the general perception that women with discontinuous careers are less productive than their male colleagues, and systematically disadvantages women. We conclude that the solution resides beyond women's empowerment, i.e., in the broader institutions of education and the family, which have an important role to play in fostering men's equal contribution to household chores and care-work.
... Conséquemment, cet emploi habituellement réservé aux étudiants des cycles supérieurs, en plus de contribuer à la formation en recherche du candidat, peut lui offrir des occasions intéressantes d'apprentissage et, ultimement, lui permettre d'augmenter son volume de publications en cosignant des articles portant sur des projets autres que sa thèse. Qui plus est, les travaux de Larivière (2011), à propos des écrits scientifiques publiés entre 2000 et 2007 au Québec, ont mis en lumière que les doctorants avaient contribué au tiers de ces écrits avec, cependant, une présence étudiante plus marquée dans les sciences de la nature que dans les sciences sociales. ...
La préparation d’un CV de futur professeur d’université est une tâche qui doit être envisagée dès l’entrée aux études de 3e cycle et qui demande une attention particulière tout au long du cheminement doctoral de l’étudiant. Or, pour le doctorant qui ne connait pas encore très bien les exigences associées à l’obtention d’un poste de professeur-chercheur et qui ne possède pas encore de réseau professionnel, la tâche peut s’avérer fort complexe. C’est ici que l’aide d’un mentor peut prendre tout son sens. Dans cet article, l’auteure décrira comment le travail de collaboration avec sa mentor, dans ce cas-ci sa directrice de thèse, lui a permis de développer un bon CV qui, peu de temps après la soutenance de thèse, lui permettait de décrocher un poste de professeure-chercheuse.
... Indeed, within any institution the doctoral researchers themselves, individually and en masse, make huge contributions to this knowledgegenerating activity. See, for example, Lariviere's (2011) research that found that PhD students contributed to about a third of the publication output in his Canadian province, with collaboration with peers and advisors being an important component. This demonstrates that doctoral researchers cannot perform this important function without considerable support as they change from knowledge imbibers to knowledge producers (Halse & Mowbray, 2011). ...
In 2000 Barnett discussed the transformation of university scholarship and research in a world he described as 'supercomplex' (Barnett, 2000). It is more so now. Even doctoral research problems increasingly require collaborative multidisciplinary support so that theoretical and practical outcomes can be made relevant, impactful, and accessible to diverse audiences. Although universities should provide doctoral supervisory training to enable supervisors to excel in this current and any new context, we posit here ways in which supervisors could take greater agency in both achieving CPD and in gaining help from other colleagues with specific areas of expertise so that doctoral research becomes truly a team effort.
... Studies have consistently confirmed that doctoral students have become indispensable in academic knowledge production. Examples include Larivière (2012), who found that in Ontario universities, doctoral students contribute up to 30% of annual publications. This may be considered a positive trend in the sense that research outputs are quickly increasing global and national pools of knowledge given that research results are disseminated during the PhD rather than later or even never (Horta and Santos 2016). ...
Publication pressure is perceived to be filtering down into doctoral education worldwide. We explore the causes and effects of the perceived centrality of publishing among doctoral students, emphasising the impact of publication pressure on students' identity trajectories. We draw on a qualitative analysis of 90 mainland Chinese doctoral students at universities in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. We find that the credentialisation of publications in the increasingly competitive and publication-dominant academic labour market results in publishing-centred doctoral journeys. Our key finding is that the centrality of publishing affects every aspect of identity trajectory development: it causes doctoral students to commodify knowledge production, devalues coursework, conference participation, and teaching assistantships, encourages students to regard their supervisors as publishing facilitators and their peers as rivals rather than collaborators, and marginalises engagement with external stakeholders. In discussing these dimensions, we emphasise the need for a more comprehensive evaluation of candidates' abilities and honours in academic recruitment and call for policies to curtail the overemphasis on research output in academic evaluations.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
This chapter focuses on the needs and experiences of Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students in academia. The study employed qualitative research methods, including group discussions and individual written responses ( n = 34) and an online survey ( n = 32). The participants were Indigenous HDR students from different disciplinary fields from across Australia who participated in this research during 2018 and 2020. Specifically, this research project explored the students’ needs and experiences during their candidature. We found that the role of supervisors in the students’ HDR journey impacted their sense of agency and their opportunities for mentorship and networking within their discipline. Indigenous HDR student specifically reported the need for: (1) quality supervision; (2) mentoring opportunities; and (3) access to research training. The reported needs bring the spotlight on how increasing retention rates of Indigenous HDR students might be possible.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students navigating higher education institutions continue to face additional challenges that are not associated with the research degree they are pursuing. Racism continues to be identified as a barrier present in academic settings and society. The impact of racism may affect an individual’s agency and their ability to acquire academic capital. Both agency and academic capital may also influence how an individual is supported throughout their candidature and ultimately become a factor in the success of the HDR student’s research degree. In this chapter, we discuss the role of agency and academic capital among Indigenous HDR students and then connect our findings to how Indigenous HDR students ( n = 99) report that agency and/or how academic capital has influenced their experience in higher education. This chapter is also informed by insights from supervisors of Indigenous HDR students ( n = 33).
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
Throughout this book, we have shared our experiences of conducting capacity-building workshops and undertaking research about the needs and experiences of Indigenous HDR students in Australia. In total, we heard from 147 participants which included 113 Indigenous HDR students across Australia and 34 supervisors of Indigenous HDR students. The insights received from both Indigenous HDR students and supervisors revealed that there are still opportunities to improve the HDR experience for Indigenous students. Based on our findings, in this chapter, we expand on the recommendations outlined in the Moreton-Robinson et al.’s (Report on Indigenous success in higher degree by research. Prepared for the Australian Government, Department of Education and Training, 2020) report to include new data collected in 2020 from 32 Indigenous HDR students. We hope our recommendations, once acted upon, will have a positive impact on the success of Indigenous HDR students and that the insights shared by the Indigenous HDR candidates we heard from will have meaning and relevance for anyone pursuing a research degree.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
This chapter draws on our experience facilitating the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN) capacity-building workshops. During these workshops, we continually heard what we refer to as “the three myths about what an Indigenous HDR student ought to be doing”. The three myths are that an Indigenous HDR student needs to be: (1) supervised by an Indigenous supervisor; (2) using Indigenous research methodologies; and (3) researching Indigenous issues. Following these workshops, we sought to understand the needs and experience of Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students and supervisors of Indigenous HDR students. Informing this chapter are group discussions, written responses and surveys conducted with Indigenous HDR students ( n = 66) and supervisor of Indigenous HDR students ( n = 33). In this chapter, we argue against these myths to demonstrate that discipline expertise and/or methodological expertise is the most important variable that determines how all HDR students are paired with supervisors. We also argue that it is harmful and racist to expect Indigenous HDR students to use a prescribed methodology that is race-based. And that, the assumption that Indigenous HDR students should be researching Indigenous matters rather than their own research interests is problematic.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
Supervision is a significant influence in higher degree by research (HDR) students’ success. Quality supervision provided to Indigenous HDR students has recently attracted the interest of researchers. This chapter provides an overview of the needs and experiences of supervisors of Indigenous HDR students. We surveyed 33 supervisors to understand their needs and experiences when supervising Indigenous HDR candidates. The perceptions of quality supervision, the good practices and concerns of supervisors and professional development required in supervising Indigenous HDR students were brought to the supervisors who participated in our research. Our study found that it is the mental health and well-being of Indigenous HDR students that raises concerns for their supervisors, while racism is still prevalent. Keeping Indigenous HDR students motivated, being on track and supporting Indigenous HDR students physically, mentally and academically were other concerns found in this study. Specifically, what supervisors of Indigenous HDR students can provide and what they need to best support their students discloses their good practices and concerns in supervision.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
This chapter provides an overview of the research conducted about the needs and experiences of Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students. We conducted multiple studies (six datasets in total) that included evaluation forms from capacity-building workshops, group discussions, written responses, online surveys to Indigenous HDR students ( n = 114) and supervisors of Indigenous HDR students ( n = 33) focusing on their needs and experiences and an evaluation survey of a national program. Of the six datasets, all but one are from Indigenous HDR students. All of these sources of data collected have helped to inform this book. We argue that Indigenous peoples are not the problem that need ‘fixing’ to increase HDR completions rates; rather, the system needs addressing to better support Indigenous HDR students. This book is written to privilege the voices of the Indigenous HDR students who were involved in this research. Through the chapters, we will undo and/or dispel some misunderstandings that continue to persist in higher education institutions about what Indigenous HDR students need to succeed in the academy. We challenge these assumptions using the insights shared by Indigenous HDR students who told us about their needs and experiences in higher education. This chapter provides the background, states the aims of the book and the research question guiding this study and provides an overview of each chapter in this book. We have written this book for anyone interested in successful pathways for Indigenous HDR students.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
The number of Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students has increased steadily over the past decade. Support for Indigenous students from the Australian government, universities and Indigenous Support Units has been documented in Australian higher education. Unfortunately, a range of barriers continue to hinder Indigenous HDR students to completion in their research journey. Presented in this book chapter is the literature review of barriers, including lack of academic skill set and research skills to pursue a research degree program, lack of social and academic support for Indigenous HDR students, the student—supervisor relationship issues and challenges relating to health, family and community responsibilities. Simultaneously, our review identified current strategies and initiatives to retain Indigenous HDR students in their research degree programs and to support them to completion, highlighting the roles of the Indigenous Postgraduate Support Officer and the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network. This review, we suggest, should move further to analyse the effectiveness of current strategies and initiatives provided for Indigenous HDR students in detail to inform Indigenous students of the available support resources and how to access to these resources.
... However, students in Cardilini et al.'s study also expected supervisors to provide more guidance on developing academic independence, collaboration skills and to maintain motivation. The literature has reported that HDR students who are actively supported and guided to increase their academic independence and collaboration skills will likely have positive effects on their motivation and productivity as well as assist them to develop independent ideas and teamwork skills (Lariviere, 2012;Sinclair et al., 2014). ...
Since 2013, Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students have had an opportunity to participate in capacity-building workshops conducted by the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN). The workshops included basic information about completing a research degree, including how to navigate academia, how to read and write critically and an introduction to Indigenous research methodologies. In this chapter, an overview of what NIRAKN set out to achieve and what has been accomplished is discussed. Evaluation forms completed by Indigenous HDR students ( n = 78) who attended capacity-building workshops were analysed to understand what students found to be beneficial when participating in NIRAKN events. Here, we share the findings and offer insights into ways higher education institutions can support Indigenous HDR students in the successful completion of their degrees.
... The so-called doctoral dissertation proves that the researcher can independently solve a scientific task, with which it broadens our knowledge with new, previously undiscovered results in the field [4]. The significance of the work made by PhD fellows is supported by the fact that about one third of research publications comes from a doctoral student in universities [5]. ...
Introduction:
PhD is the highest awarded degree offered by universities in different disciplines. Owners of a PhD can teach at universities, start independent research and receive a higher salary while further building a scientific career. We examined whether the publication output before the PhD degree has a correlation with subsequent research activities.
Methods:
We downloaded publication and citation data from the Hungarian Scientific Bibliography for Hungarian researchers who obtained PhD between the ages of 24 and 45. The researchers were grouped into eleven scientific sections. We examined the number of Q1 publications published in the previous 5 years, the H-index, the total number of citations for the last complete year, and the biological age of the researcher. Each parameter was computed for the year at which the PhD was obtained and ten years later. Pre-PhD publications (and citations for these) were excluded when assessing post-PhD track records. Spearman rank correlation and Kruskal-Wallis test were computed.
Results:
We analyzed all together 4,790 researchers. We obtained a positive correlation between the number of Q1 publications before and after PhD (corr. coeff. = 0.21-0.54, p<0.01 in all sections), between the H-index before and after PhD (corr. coeff. = 0.32-0.56, p<0.01 in all sections), and between the citations received before and after PhD (corr. coeff. = 0.34-0.51, p<0.01 in all sections). All three metrics measured ten years after the PhD were negatively correlated with the age of the researcher at the time of obtaining the PhD (number of publications corr. coeff. = -0.09-0.22, p<0.05; H-index corr. coeff. = -0.09-0.29, p<0.08; number of citations corr. coeff. = -0.14-0.30, p<0.01). Among all disciplines, Philosophy and History and Engineering sciences show the strongest correlation between pre- and post-PhD output. When running multiple regression analysis for all three metrics as dependent variables and the number of articles, the H-index, the number of citations in the year of the PhD, the calendar year of PhD, and the gender of the researcher as independent variables, the number of articles and the H-index in the year of PhD reached the strongest positive correlations while gender had a negative correlation.
Conclusions:
We independently evaluated pre- and post-PhD publication performance. In connection with age, the discipline-specific reference values of scientometric parameters at the time of obtaining the PhD can help to select candidates for postdoctoral grants and positions.
... En rédigeant une thèse, les doctorants contribuent à l'avancement de la recherche et à l'innovation. En effet, un doctorant ayant fini sa recherche ne fait pas qu'acquérir un diplôme universitaire, mais contribue à la science puisque sa thèse sera publiée (sous certaines conditions) et sera donc un ajout à la communauté scientifique et pourra même être utilisée comme référence pour d'autres recherches (Larivière, 2011) ...
Doing and obtaining a doctorate allows one to deepen one's field of study through research, to enrich and diversify one's skills within the institutional and scientific framework. However, achieving these goals depends on the conditions under which learners conduct their research. The purpose of this article is to conduct a descriptive analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics and research conditions of doctoral students and PhDs at the two doctoral schools of the Assane Seck University of Ziguinchor. A descriptive study was conducted from November 18 to January 07, 2022 at the university on all doctoral and post-doctoral students of the two doctoral schools of this university. Our sample is composed of 93 respondents including 75 PhD students and 18 PhDs. The results showed a predominance of single men of Senegalese nationality enrolled in the waiver year from the Doctoral School of Science, Technology and Engineering who are not satisfied with their research conditions and who receive little funding for research.
... En rédigeant une thèse, les doctorants contribuent à l'avancement de la recherche et à l'innovation. En effet, un doctorant ayant fini sa recherche ne fait pas qu'acquérir un diplôme universitaire, mais contribue à la science puisque sa thèse sera publiée (sous certaines conditions) et sera donc un ajout à la communauté scientifique et pourra même être utilisée comme référence pour d'autres recherches (Larivière, 2011) ...
... Doctoral students are regarded as both knowledge consumers and knowledge producers. They need to acquire new knowledge and skills on the one hand, and make contributions to knowledge frontiers on the other hand (Larivière, 2012). Against the setting of 'publish or perish', academic productivity measured by publications serves as an integral capital for researchers' academic careers. ...
Based on the data of 1882 Chinese doctoral students in social science fields, this study examined the initial placement of PhD holders in the academic labor market. Findings indicate the research network of doctorate holders is significantly related to their academic career identity attainment. There was an inverted U-shape curve between the research network scale and the probability of pursuing an academic career. Those occupying more structural hole locations were more likely to choose an academic career. However, neither the scale nor location of the research network could guarantee a faculty position in a prestigious university or department. No significant correlation was found between the research network and academic career status attainment.
Le deuil est un sujet de recherche multidimensionnel très complexe qui revêt plusieurs enjeux pour les chercheur·e·s, tant au plan méthodologique qu’éthique. Comment arriver à mieux comprendre cette expérience, dans toutes ses dimensions individuelles et sociales? Par quels moyens protéger les personnes en situation de vulnérabilité qui participent à des études sur le deuil? Quelles stratégies utiliser afin que les chercheur·e·s qui travaillent sur cette question arrivent à se sentir soutenus, voire même épanouis? Quelle méthodologie de recherche peut être déployée pour répondre aux problématiques ciblées? L’approche interdisciplinaire et empathique, utilisée dans le cadre du projet de recherche international Covideuil, semble avoir permis de répondre à ces importantes questions.À partir de cette expérience de collaboration, cet article apporte un éclairage sur les défis et les avantages de l’approche interdisciplinaire et empathique dans l’étude du deuil, propose quelques considérations favorisant sa mise en œuvre et soulève des pistes de réflexion, dans le but d’enrichir et de faciliter la recherche interdisciplinaire dans ce domaine.
Graduate students are vital to the creation of research and innovation in Canada. The National Graduate Student Finance Survey was launched in 2021 by the Ottawa Science Policy Network to investigate the financial realities of Canadian graduate students. Closing in April 2022, the survey received 1305 responses from graduate students representing various geographical locations, years of study, fields of education, and demographic backgrounds. The results capture a snapshot into graduate student finances, including an in-depth analysis of stipends, scholarships, debt, tuition, and living expenses. In its entirety, we found that the majority of graduate students are facing serious financial concerns. This is largely due to stagnant funding for students both from federal and provincial granting agencies and from within their institutions. This reality is even worse for international students, members of historically underrepresented communities, and those with dependents, all of whom experience additional challenges that impact their financial security. Based on our findings, we propose several recommendations to the Tri-Council agencies (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, and Canadian Institute for Health Research) and academic institutions to strengthen graduate student finances and help sustain the future of research in Canada.
Bu araştırmanın amacı, öğretim üyelerinin araştırma üretkenliği kavramına ilişkin algılarını ortaya koymaktır. Nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden biri olan fenomenoloji deseni ile yapılandırılan çalışmada, veri toplama aracı olarak araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada çalışma grubunun, çeşitli alanlardan farklı akademik unvanlara sahip öğretim üyelerinden oluşması sağlanmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu nedenle, sosyal bilimler ve fen bilimleri alanlarında görev yapan doktor öğretim üyesi, doçent ve profesör unvanına sahip akademisyenlerden toplam 20 öğretim üyesine ulaşılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde MaxQda programı kullanılmış, veriler betimsel analiz yöntemi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Akademisyenler genel olarak araştırma üretkenliğini uzman olunan alanla ilgili araştırma yapma, yeni bilgi ortaya çıkarma, bilgileri yayınlar aracılığıyla paylaşma ve bütün bu etkinlikler aracılığıyla alana katkı sağlama olarak tanımlamaktadırlar. Araştırma üretkenliğini açıklarken nitelikli yayın, güncellik, görünürlük/fark edilebilirlik, gelişim, bilinmeyeni keşfetme, fikir üretme, sağlam/sürdürülebilir eser, ürün ortaya çıkarma kavramlarını sıklıkla kullanmışlardır. Araştırma üretkenliğine sahip olmak adına makale, kitap/kitap bölümü yazma, konferans, kongre, çalıştay gibi etkinlikler içinde yer alma ve bildiri sunma, eğitim verme/alma, işbirlikli çalışma ve proje yapma, patent alma gibi faaliyetler içinde yer alınması gerektiğini düşünmektedirler. Ancak bu faaliyetlerin sayı bakımından değerlendirilmek yerine nitelik bakımından değerlendirilmesi gerektiğine vurgu yapmışlar ve yapılan yayınlarının niteliğini, etki değeri yüksek dergilerde yayınlanmış olma ve atıf alma kriterlerine göre değerlendirdiklerini belirtmişlerdir.
Las instituciones de educación superior han sido caracterizadas frecuentemente como instituciones reacias al cambio, que presentan desarrollos organizacionales poco acoplados entre sí a razón de contar con elevados niveles de especialización y diferenciación estructural, la presencia de “silos culturales”, así como la pervivencia de sistemas de recompensa que promueven la autonomía y el logro individual, lo que, combinado con bucles de retroalimentación débiles, a menudo dificultan que logren dirigir sus esfuerzos apropiadamente hacia el mejoramiento continuo.
El presente trabajo contiene la base conceptual de un proceso diagnóstico organizacional, presentado a partir de siete dimensiones de análisis estratégico de la función universitaria, formuladas a partir del cuerpo teórico de referencia. Cada dimensión se define, a su vez, en categorías y características observables.
The aim of the study is to conduct a needs assessment study to determine research productivity needs of doctoral students. A mixed method approach and fully mixed concurrent dominant status design is used in the current study. The participants of the study included doctoral students, professors, and deans of (graduate schools) at a university in Turkey from the various Social and Natural Sciences Departments so that the needs of doctoral students from different disciplines could be examined. 'Needs assessment questionnaires' were administered to 35 doctoral students, 35 professors, and 4 deans; interviews were conducted with 7 doctoral students, 4 professors and 4 deans to collect the data. Findings of the study showed that academic writing skills were the most frequently mentioned skill that the doctoral students need to improve for their research productivity. In interviews, needs of the participants divided into personal factors like interest and positive attitudes towards research, intrinsic motivation, critical thinking and writing skills, scientific method and foreign language knowledge; institutional factors like support of advisor/professors, taking part in collaborative and interdisciplinary studies, joining the research projects, accessing easily to resources, elimination of bureaucratic obstacles, and environmental factors like support of individuals in immediate surroundings of doctoral students.
The effect of personality on doctoral students’ research productivity is understudied in the literature. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the personality trait conscientiousness and research productivity among doctoral students. The study is based on a nation-wide data set consisting of 1173 doctoral students in Sweden. Two hypothesis was formulated: (1) Conscientiousness predicts doctoral students research productivity; and (2) Conscientiousness predicts doctoral students co-authoring with the supervisors. It was also asked how the relationship between conscientiousness and research productivity/co-authoring with supervisors differ between research areas. Results supported hypothesis 1 and 2. The main conclusions are that doctoral students with higher conscientiousness co-author more with their supervisors, are more productive during doctoral studies, and that overall the effect of conscientiousness is similar over the research areas.
Alors que le parcours aux cycles supérieurs en science politique est caractérisé par une forte compétition, les étudiant.e.s doivent s’initier rapidement aux rudiments de la recherche scientifique et publier durant leurs études. Ce court article plaide en faveur des projets autonomes extracurriculaires comme outil contribuant significativement à former la relève en recherche. Dans une perspective d’apprentissage par la pratique, collaborer à des activités étudiantes de diffusion de la recherche peut avoir des retombées positives sur le plan des connaissances et des compétences qui préparent au rôle de chercheur.euse. C’est aussi l’occasion de développer une meilleure compréhension générale des normes et des usages propres à la discipline. Cela peut rendre plus accessible le monde de la recherche à des personnes non initiées, désavantagées ou sous-représentées. Ainsi, les institutions d’enseignement supérieur ont intérêt à soutenir ce genre d’initiatives afin d’offrir une meilleure formation à leurs étudiant.e.s en complément au cursus officiel et ce, à tous les cycles d’études.
Publishing in peer‐reviewed journals has become an essential requirement for PhD students wishing to pursue a career in academia. Yet, there are few studies of student publishing and little discussion of norms around attribution of authorship for student research collaborators. (1) How often do students feature as submitters and authors in political science journals? (2) In what format (i.e., solo author, co‐author, multiple authors) do students normally submit and publish? (3) Are there gender differences in student submission and publication rates between male and female students? This article uses 2 years of data from the International Political Science Review (IPSR; i.e., 2019 and 2020) to answer these questions. Mainly using cross‐tabulations, we found that just one in eight submitting authors was a student (i.e., undergraduate and postgraduate). In terms of acceptance rates, students had generally lower acceptance rates than faculty. Yet, there were also important differences within the student body. As expected PhD students were more successful than undergraduate and masters' students, and in line with general disciplinary publishing patterns, female PhD students had a higher publication success rate than their male colleagues.
Research studies have found that coauthorship with top scientists positively correlates with researchers’ career advancement. However, the influence of different proximities and types of coauthorship with top scientists on their performance has rarely been discussed. We identified the winners of four awards as top authors. We also evaluated the effect on the researchers’ affiliation change, research topic, productivity, and impact before and after three top-ordinary scientist coauthorship types (strong, moderate, and weak), examining the effect after top-top and ordinary-ordinary scientist coauthorships. Additionally, a coauthorship closeness indicator was proposed, considering the team size and author role to measure the collaboration relationship between coauthors. The results reveal that the top scientist in strong coauthorship obtained the highest affiliation change rate. For the top-ordinary coauthorship, the affiliation change rate for top scientists is higher than for ordinary scientists. For other aspects (the coauthor number, research topic, productivity, and impact), the rate after strong and moderate coauthorships increases compared to weak top-ordinary coauthorship type for top and ordinary scientists. Therefore, top scientists obtain a partner with skills, and ordinary scientists obtain more guidance. Strong and moderate coauthorships are win-win relationships for top-ordinary coauthorship types.
Over the past 20 years, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has reported a median of 50% for dropout rates in doctoral programs, all disciplines combined (OECD, 2019). Among reasons for not graduating, PhD students identify a lack of experience and competencies with academic writing, impeding on their progression as students, but also as novice scholars (Litalien & Guay, 2015). Indeed, graduate students are required to undergo professional socialization, by engaging with other scholars, to learn the norms and practices of their respective research fields (Skakni, 2011). This paper aims at communicating preliminary results from a doctoral research to provide a greater understanding of peer learning in academic writing groups organized by Master’s and PhD students. The social learning theory developed by Bandura (1971) is used as a foundation to our study, with its self-efficacy concept at the forefront of our theoretical framework. In that regard, PhD students can develop confidence in their abilities to successfully complete writing projects based on four sources of influence: mastery experiences; vicarious experiences; social persuasion; and physiological and emotional states (Bandura, 2019). While studying a learning community composed of 4,000 graduate students, as an instrumental case study (Stake, 1995), we conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 PhD students, followed by a content analysis of transcripts using a qualitative data analysis software (NVivo12). Participants representing 12 Canadian universities and 14 scholarly disciplines shared significant learning experiences related to all four self-efficacy sources of influence. Of particular interest, findings revealed that PhD students gathering in public places (cafes, libraries, coworking spaces, museums, parks) increased their self-efficacy through peer learning (exchanging, observing, modelling). These results are presented with a view of recommending valuable strategies to develop academic writing competencies through social actions led by graduate students, in conjunction with institutional support in the context of higher education.
During dissertation writing, PhD candidates face challenges engaging with academic writing, among other things, which leads to their participation in writing retreats with their peers. Developing a better understanding of PhD candidates’ needs to optimize engagement with writing is important for improving the overall doctoral experience and reduce attrition. We then conducted a qualitative longitudinal experimental study with PhD candidates from Canadian universities: 15 respondents who participated in a writing retreat and 15 respondents who never participated in such event. Based on our findings, this article presents a complementary perspective to the theoretical model of engagement with writing by Murray (2015). Thereon, we expand on the intersectionality of components (cognitive, physical, social) to illustrate the influence of structured writing activities. These intersections highlight the benefits of writing retreats to answer the needs of PhD candidates to engage with writing: planning dedicated writing periods, implementing effective work methods in environments enabling concentration, and engaging with collective writing activities. By way of supplementing the most recent literature on the subject, we suggest that the participation in structured writing retreats serves as a pedagogical benchmark for graduate programs to offer students comparable conditions in support of their writing requirements to enhance academic success.
With data from a national survey of 3800 doctoral students in departments of chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, microbiology and physics, and data from the Survey of Doctoral Recipients/National Science Foundation, we analyze the career-preferences and prospects of young scientists. We analyze patterns by field and gender of students, and assess the extent to which the preferences and subjective (reported) prospects of doctoral students reflect the objective (actual) employment experiences of recent PhD recipients. The findings point toward the intricacy of the relationship between subjective and objective career prospects; and to the ways in which individual inclinations and conditioned `expectations' rest upon what is regarded as feasible, by gender and by field in science.
Has sociology become more socially integrated over the last 30 years? Recent work in the sociology of knowledge demonstrates a direct linkage between social interaction patterns and the structure of ideas, suggesting that scientific collaboration networks affect scientific practice. I test three competing models for sociological collaboration networks and find that a structurally cohesive core that has been growing steadily since the early 1960s characterizes the discipline's coauthorship network. The results show that participation in the sociology collaboration network depends on research specialty and that quantitative work is more likely to be coauthored than non-quantitative work. However, structural embeddedness within the network core given collaboration is largely unrelated to specialty area. This pattern is consistent with a loosely overlapping specialty structure that has potentially integrative implications for theoretical development in sociology.
The future of the scientific enterprise is vested in the next generation of scientists who are currently enrolled in doctoral programs and fellowships in the nation's universities. Because scientific education occurs in the scientific milieu, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are directly influenced by the organizational and contextual forces driving the conduct of scientific research.
The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of industrial research support, work-group size, and organizational climate on the productivity of graduate students and postdocs and their subsequent willingness to share their research with the scientific community. In order to address this issue, we conducted a national survey of a random sample of 2,000 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the life sciences, chemical engineering, and computer science.
The results of this survey show that organizational climate (as measured by multiitem scales reflecting the amount of collaboration, competition, individualism, and openness) and work-group size are significantly related to the productivity of students as well as to their willingness to share their research results with others. In addition, we found significant differences and similarities between scientific fields and between doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Finally, our data suggest that the presence of industrial funding enhances productivity and does not detract from willingness to share.
This paper gives an outline of a new bibliometric database based upon all articles published by authors from the Netherlands, and processed during the time period 1980–1993 by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) for theScience Citation Index (SCI),Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) andArts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). The paper describes various types of information added to the database: data on articles citing the Dutch publications; detailed citation data on ISI journals and subfields; and a classification system of publishing main organizations, appearing in the addresses. Moreover, an overview is given of the types of bibliometric indicators that were constructed. Their relationship to indicators developed by other researchers in the field is discussed. Finally, two applications are given in order to illustrate the potentials of the database and of the bibliometric indicators derived from it. The first represents a synthesis of classical macro indicator studies at the one hand, and bibliometric analyses of research groups or institutes at the other. The second application gives for the first time a detailed analysis of a country's publication output per institutional sector.
Cross-field comparison ofscientometric indicators
1 is severely hindered by the differences in publication and citation habits of science fields. However, relating publication and citation indicators to proper field-specific reference standards,relative indicators can be built, which may prove rather useful in the comparative assessment of scientists, groups, institutions or countries. The use ofrelational charts in displaying the indicators broadens the scope of such assessments. Relative indicators of chemistry research in 25 countries are presented as an illustrative example.
of new knowledge production in universities, most doctoral students do not receive adequate mentoring or structural support to publish from their research, with poor results. Data from a case study of graduates in science and education are examined to show how the different disciplinary and pedagogic practices of each discourse community impact on student publication. It is argued that co-authorship with supervisors is a significant pedagogic practice that can enhance the robustness and know-how of emergent scholars as well as their publication output. There is a need, however, to rethink co-authorship more explicitly as a pedagogic practice, and create more deliberate structures in subject disciplines to scaffold doctoral publication – as it is these structures that influence whether graduates publish as informed professionals in their chosen fields of practice.
Twenty doctoral students in the disciplines of chemistry and history were interviewed to better understand the socialization
processes that influence their success and how these processes differ by year in the degree program and disciplinary culture.
Five major themes emerged describing these socialization processes and how they facilitate or impede degree success, including
Ambiguity, describing the programmatic guidelines and expectations that surrounded much of the students’ experience; Balance,
pointing to the students’ need to balance graduate school responsibilities along with external relationships and demands;
Independence, describing the students’ desire to find equilibrium as they transitioned to the role of independent scholar;
Development, highlighting the significant cognitive, personal, and professional development that occurs in these students’
graduate experience; and Support, describing the faculty, peer, and financial support needed for the students’ success in
their degree programs. Suggestions for policy, practice, and further research are discussed.
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The main objective of this study is the elaboration of national characteristics in internationalscientific co-authorship relations. An attempt is made to find statistical evidence of symmetry andasymmetry in co-publication links, of the relation between international co-authorship and bothnational research profiles and citation impact. Four basic types can be distinguished in the relativespecialisation of domestic and internationally co-authored publications of 50 most activecountries in 1995/96 concerning the significance of the difference between the two profiles.Co-publication maps reveal structural changes in international co-authorship links in the lastdecade. Besides stable links and coherent clusters, new nodes and links have also been found. Notall links between individual countries are symmetric. Specific (unidirectional) co-authorshipaffinity could also be detected in several countries.As expected, international co-authorship, on an average, results in publications with highercitation rates than purely domestic papers. However, the influence of international collaborationon the national citation impact varies considerably between the countries (and within oneindividual country between fields). In some cases there is, however, no citation advantage for oneor even for both partners.
ere is, however, no citation advantage for oneor even for both partners.
This study of the impact of doctoral adviser mentoring on student outcomes was undertaken in response to earlier research
that found (a) students with greater incoming potential received more adviser mentoring, and (b) adviser mentoring did not
significantly contribute to important student outcomes, including research productivity [Green, S. G., and Bauer, T. N. (1995).
Personnel Psychology 48(3): 537–561]. In this longitudinal study spanning 5 1/2years, the effect of mentorship on the research productivity,
career commitment, and self-efficacy of Ph.D. students in the ‘hard’ sciences was assessed, while controlling for indicators
of ability and attitudes at program entry. Positive benefits of mentoring were found for subsequent productivity and self-efficacy.
Mentoring was not significantly associated with commitment to a research career.
International collaboration as measured by co-authorship relations on refereed papers grew linearly from 1990 to 2005 in terms of the number of papers, but exponentially in terms of the number of international addresses. This confirms Persson et al.'s [Persson, O., Glänzel, W., & Danell, R. (2004). Inflationary bibliometrics values: The role of scientific collaboration and the need for relative indicators in evaluative studies. Scientometrics, 60(3), 421–432] hypothesis of an inflation in international collaboration. Patterns in international collaboration in science can be considered as network effects, since there is no political institution mediating relationships at that level except for the initiatives of the European Commission. Science at the international level shares features with other complex adaptive systems whose order arises from the interactions of hundreds of agents pursuing self-interested strategies. During the period 2000–2005, the network of global collaborations appears to have reinforced the formation of a core group of fourteen most cooperative countries. This core group can be expected to use knowledge from the global network with great efficiency, since these countries have strong national systems. Countries at the periphery may be disadvantaged by the increased strength of the core.
A basic dichotomy is generally made between publication practices in the natural sciences and engineering (NSE) on the one hand and social sciences and humanities (SSH) on the other. However, while researchers in the NSE share some common practices with researchers in SSH, the spectrum of practices is broader in the latter. Drawing on data from the CD-ROM versions of the Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index from 1980 to 2002, this paper compares collaboration patterns in the SSH to those in the NSE. We show that, contrary to a widely held belief, researchers in the social sciences and the humanities do not form a homogeneous category. In fact, collaborative activities of researchers in the social sciences are more comparable to those of researchers in the NSE than in the humanities. Also, we see that language and geographical proximity influences the choice of collaborators in the SSH, but also in the NSE. This empirical analysis, which sheds a new light on the collaborative activities of researchers in the NSE compared to those in the SSH, may have policy implications as granting councils in these fields have a tendency to imitate programs developed for the NSE, without always taking into account the specificity of the humanities.
Summary The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of linguistic coverage of databases used by bibliometricians on the capacity
to effectively benchmark the work of researchers in social sciences and humanities. We examine the strong link between bibliometrics
and the Thomson Scientific's database and review the differences in the production and diffusion of knowledge in the social
sciences and humanities (SSH) and the natural sciences and engineering (NSE). This leads to a re-examination of the debate
on the coverage of these databases, more specifically in the SSH. The methods section explains how we have compared the coverage
of Thomson Scientific databases in the NSE and SSH to the Ulrich extensive database of journals. Our results show that there
is a 20 to 25% overrepresentation of English-language journals in Thomson Scientific's databases compared to the list of journals
presented in Ulrich. This paper concludes that because of this bias, Thomson Scientific databases cannot be used in isolation
to benchmark the output of countries in the SSH.
This study investigates the publication rates of successful doctoral students in the fields of analytical chemistry, experimental psychology, and American literature. Publication rates were calculated for a sample of those receiving doctorates every fifth year between 1965 and 1995. An analysis of the data revealed that there were differences in publication rates of the doctoral students that mirrored differences between the fields as a whole. The data also show that the decline in solo authorship observed in many fields is present in this population as well. Participation rates (percent that had at least one publication) for chemistry and literature showed initial increases followed by plateaus since the early 1980s, while the participation rate in psychology has remained between 40 and 60 percent over the course of the study.
In this book, Gregory Feist reviews and consolidates the scattered literatures on the psychology of science, then calls for the establishment of the field as a unique discipline. He offers the most comprehensive perspective yet on how science came to be possible in our species and on the important role of psychological forces in an individual's development of scientific interest, talent, and creativity. Without a psychological perspective, Feist argues, we cannot fully understand the development of scientific thinking or scientific genius. The author explores the major subdisciplines within psychology as well as allied areas, including biological neuroscience and developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology, to show how each sheds light on how scientific thinking, interest, and talent arise. He assesses which elements of scientific thinking have their origin in evolved mental mechanisms and considers how humans may have developed the highly sophisticated scientific fields we know today. In his fascinating and authoritative book, Feist deals thoughtfully with the mysteries of the human mind and convincingly argues that the creation of the psychology of science as a distinct discipline is essential to deeper understanding of human thought processes.
A sample of factors presumed relevant to the time required to complete doctoral degrees (TTC) was explored in a survey of 154 recent graduates of Natural Science, Social Science, and Humanities doctoral programs at York University. In addition to the variables of gender and discipline, characteristics of the supervisory relationship, as well as the graduate's financial situation and enrollment status, were investigated. On average, respondents took 5.94 years to complete their degrees with students in the Natural Sciences the fastest completers. Although there were no significant gender differences in TTC, male graduates were more satisfied with their doctoral education overall and the quality of supervision they received (from both their supervisors and their supervisory committees) than were females. Males were also more likely to collaborate with their supervisors in the preparation of research papers. With respect to financial support, respondents who were slower completers reported receiving more years of teaching assistantships. Additionally, respondents from the Natural Sciences reported receiving more years of teaching assistantships and research assistantships than respondents from the other disciplines. A multiple regression analysis revealed that the following combination of variables accounted for 30% of the variance in TTC: beginning the dissertation research early in the program, remaining with the original topic and supervisor, meeting frequently with supervisor, and collaborating with supervisor on conference papers.
Within the natural sciences and engineering, literature relating to postgraduate education, in particular the process of completing a doctorate, remains generally scarce. That which does exist emphasises the role of the supervisor in effecting successful completion and points to a wide range of activities performed by supervisors. There remains, however, little by way of accounts of the actual experiences of supervisors or students when engaged in the process of doctoral supervision. It is these experiences which form the basis of this paper which focuses upon doctoral students and their supervisors in the disciplines of physics, mathematics and engineering science. Data for the paper have been collected, as part of an ESRC funded project, by means of in‐depth interviews with students and supervisors in nine universities in England. In particular, we address students expectations of PhD supervision, the extent to which expectations have been met, and within the context of the ‘career’ of the PhD, the ways in which supervision changes as the doctoral process progresses. Important issues relating to the need for training for PhD supervisors and their capacity to meet the expectations of their students are raised, together with those which question the relationship between the PhD and the culture of academic work.
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ID - 78
Drawing on empirical research in a number of academic disciplines, and on contrasting doctoral research training in laboratory sciences with that in social sciences, the article examines the notion of ‘critical mass˚s, which has informed recent policy and debate about research training in the UK. Based on a critique of the Harris Review of Postgraduate Education, it is argued that such policy perspectives are insensitive to the fundamental differences between academic cultures and modes of organisation in different academic disciplines.
A sample of factors presumed relevant to thetime required to complete doctoral degrees (TTC) wasexplored in a survey of 154 recent graduates of NaturalScience, Social Science, and Humanities doctoral programs at York University. In addition to thevariables of gender and discipline, characteristics ofthe supervisory relationship, as well as the graduate'sfinancial situation and enrollment status, were investigated. On average, respondents took5.94 years to complete their degrees with students inthe Natural Sciences the fastest completers. Althoughthere were no significant gender differences in TTC, male graduates were more satisfied withtheir doctoral education overall and the quality ofsupervision they received (from both their supervisorsand their supervisory committees) than were females. Males were also more likely to collaborate withtheir supervisors in the preparation of research papers.With respect to financial support, respondents who wereslower completers reported receiving more years of teaching assistantships. Additionally,respondents from the Natural Sciences reported receivingmore years of teaching assistantships and researchassistantships than respondents from the other disciplines. A multiple regression analysisrevealed that the following combination of variablesaccounted for 30% of the variance in TTC: beginning thedissertation research early in the program, remaining with the original topic and supervisor, meetingfrequently with supervisor, and collaborating withsupervisor on conference papers.
This article examines the publishing activity of 54 individuals who received their doctoral degrees from American universities in 1995 and the publications that were derived from their dissertations. Publication data covered two five-year periods, 1991-1995 research-in-progress and 1996-2000 post-doctoral period. One third of the graduates did not publish anything during these 10 years. The mean number of publications for all graduates came to 0.54 per year. Only one half of these graduates produced publications out of their dissertations. The mean number of publications derived from their dissertations came to 0.85 for all graduates. Only one of these publications was the result of student/advisor collaboration indicating a very low level of such activity.
The Swinnerton‐Dyer Report of the Working Party on Postgraduate Education bases its recommendations on meeting the manpower needs of society. It largely omits from consideration the contribution to research and knowledge that postgraduates may make while working towards research degrees.This article uses interview and observational data from a study of postgraduate research students in physics to attempt to predict the possible effects on university research of any reductions in the number of postgraduate students. It is argued that manpower needs is only one of a number of criteria which need to be used in any consideration of future postgraduate numbers.
The quality of supervision received by postgraduate students has been seen as a considerable problem in a growing number of research reports. This paper takes the view that to see the problem in terms of student and supervisor roles obscures more than it clarifies. It is proposed that the concept of classification and framing used by Bernstein can be developed to shed light on the matching process which must be achieved between supervisor and student. The analysis is illustrated by examples taken from a study of postgraduates in experimental physics research.
Has sociology become more socially integrated over the last 30 years? Recent work in the sociology of knowledge demonstrates a direct linkage between social interaction patterns and the structure of ideas, suggesting that scientific collaboration networks affect scientific practice. I test three competing models for sociological collaboration networks and find that a structurally cohesive core that has been growing steadily since the early 1960s characterizes the discipline coauthorship network. The results show that participation in the sociology collaboration network depends on research specialty and that quantitative work is more likely to be coauthored than non-quantitative work. However, structural embeddedness within the network core given collaboration is largely unrelated to specialty area. This pattern is consistent with a loosely overlapping specialty structure that has potentially integrative implications for theoretical development in sociology.
The purposes of this study were to determine the extent to which graduate students contributed to thebody of research through publication in Adult Education Quarterly (AEQ) and to shed some light on aspects of knowledge production and dissemination processes in graduate adult education programs. Graduate student contributors to volumes 19 through 38 were identified from two mailed surveys conducted ten years apart. The surveys sought information on the content of graduate research, the graduate programs and faculty who supported it, and the levels of graduate study involved. In addition, the surveys sought information on the characteristics of the student authors, including their sex, level of graduate study, motivation for undertaking non-required research, research dissemination activities and current professional occupations and duties. An overall survey response rate of 88.5% was achieved. The data revealed that 113 students, as authors and co-authors, published 128 articles in the journal over the 20 year period under study. Forty six percent of all journal articles published were written by graduate student authors. Seventy articles were written by lone authors, 50 were written with one other person and eight were co-authored with two other persons. The study findings confair that graduate student contributions to AEQ have been underestimated by prior studies and that adult education departments mediate the influence of the field of education on the development of the discipline and knowledge building to a greater extent than previously recognized. Graduate publication activity in AEQ was associated with program location and gender was associated with research content and dissemination activities. Implications for further research into the processes by which knowledge is produced in adult education are presented.
The Instituting rites.
What does the rite of passage separate ? A before and an after — circumcision, for example — or those the rite concerns and those it does not — men and women. In the crossing of the line, should one consider the crossing, as the expression «rite of passage» implies, or the line itself, the arbitrary limit which the rite of institution — in the active sense of «instituting» — consecrates and legitimates ? The instituting rite, an act of social magic, owes its symbolic efficacy to the fact that it signifies to a man what he is and what he has to be : «become what you are». The work of institution is a process of inculcation which treats the body as a memory so as to induce a second nature : social function.
Hiérarchie des chercheurs et formes des recherches.
II existe une correspondance étroite, au sein du laboratoire d'hydrodynamique et de mécanique physique qui fait l'objet de cette étude, entre d'une part, la position des chercheurs dans la hiérarchie du laboratoire, et, d'autre part leur pratique scientifique et le profil de leurs résultats de recherche. Les chercheurs "juniors", les "seniors", le directeur du laboratoire et le professeur au Collège de France associé à ce laboratoire produisent tous des formes spécifiques de résultats de recherche. Le rapport du chercheur avec le phénomène qu'il explore, et la dimension de son réseau professionnel ont un impact important sur la forme de son travail. Ce laboratoire présente deux hiérarchies de résultats de recherche : une hiérarchie sociale et une hiérarchie cogni-tive. Dans la première, le statut des résultats est directement lié à la position du chercheur qui les a produits dans la hiérarchie sociale du laboratoire. Dans la seconde hiérarchie, qui fonctionne surtout pendant les périodes de conflit intellectuel, les résultats des juniors et des seniors tendent à l'emporter sur ceux de leurs supérieurs.
A study examined the socialization experiences of 25 majority and 37 minority women doctoral students using 4 indices of social opportunity: recruitment of student by department; participation in apprenticeship and mentoring experiences; perceptions of department as either competitive or cooperative and offering support networks; and experience of discrimination. Policy implications for faculty recruitment and retention are discussed. (Author/MSE)
Considerable concern exists in Canada, the United States, and some other west- ern countries about the rates of non-completion of graduate programs and the increasing amount of time needed for completion. A 1990-91 study obtained information and opinions about graduate program practices from samples of department heads and experienced supervisors of graduate students in five Canadian universities. Aspects associated most with successful completion within the universities' time limits were high student motivation, appropriate supervision, careful selection of students, clear definition of research field, and a substantial period of full-time study. The most commonly mentioned reasons provided for non-completion were acceptance of employment prior to comple- tion, inadequate supervision, financial constraints, ill-conceived projects, lack of motivation, and lack of ability.
In the humanities and the social sciences master's and PhD students take more time to complete their degree than in the natural sciences. This article examines the reasons for the difference. The findings suggest that field differences in knowledge structures and in the organisation of research have significant implications for research training. 'Hard' fields are characterised by a directed supervision model and a close relationship between students' and supervisors' research. Even though this model appears to be effective, it seems to be difficult to implement in 'soft' fields where team organisation of research is rare and where professional authority and judgements are more subject to discussion.
Using the population of all university professors (N = 13,479) in the province of Quebec, Canada, this article analyses the
concentration of funding, papers and citations at the level of individual researchers. It shows that each of these distributions
is different, citations being the most concentrated followed by funding, papers published and, finally, number of funded projects.
Concentration measures also vary between disciplines; social sciences and humanities generally being the most concentrated.
The article also shows that the correspondence between the elites defined by each of these measures is limited. In fact, only
3.2% of the researchers are in the top 10% for all indicators, while about 20% are in the top 10% for at least one of the
indicators. The article concludes with a discussion of the causes of these observed differences and formulates a few hypotheses.
Medical students in Germany have to write a research thesis to acquire the title of medical doctor. This study evaluates the contribution of student research to the Medline™-indexed publications of a German medical faculty. A 1993–1995 Medline™-publication list, on which medical students among authors should be marked, was sent to medical faculty staff of the University of Würzburg, Germany (n = 238). Faculty members responded (106, 45%), 66 were working at a clinic, 26 at a clinic-associated institute and 14 at a basic science institute. Between 1993 and 1995, 1128 Medline™-indexed papers were published by these faculty members, who on average supervised 4·5 medical students (n = 477). Medical students were among the authors of 316 (28%) and were the first authors of 88 papers (7·8%). For 66% of medical students their research resulted in a Medline™-indexed publication. Medical student research activity can significantly influence the published output of a medical faculty.
This contribution discusses basic technical-methodological issues with respect to data collection and the construction of bibliometric indicators, particularly at the macro or meso level. It focusses on the use of the Science Citation Index. Its aim is to highlight important decisions that have to be made in the process of data collection and the construction of bibliometric indicators. It illustrates differences in the methodologies applied by several important producers of bibliometric indicators: the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI); CHI Research, Inc.; the Information Science and Scientometrics Research Unit (ISSRU) at Budapest; and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University (CWTS). The observations made in this paper illustrate the complexity of the process of standardisation of bibliometric indicators. Moreover, they provide possible explanations for divergence of results obtained in different studies. The paper concludes with a few general comments related to the need of standardisation in the field of bibliometrics.
This article examines the relationship between the supervision of graduate students and university faculty research performance. We find that the supervision of Ph.D. students who have projects related to their supervisor's research has an independent effect on faculty members' scientific productivity in the natural and medical sciences and technology, but not in the humanities and social sciences. The relationship between the supervision of project related major subject students and the faculty members' productivity is only significant in the social sciences. These results are generally supported by data on faculty attitudes toward the supervision of graduate students. Those who supervised Ph.D. students gave a considerably more favourable assessment of the importance of supervision for their own research than those who only supervised major subject students, and the proportion of faculty members who answered that supervision of Ph.D. students was part of their own research to a great extent, was very much higher in the natural and medical sciences and technology than in the humanities and social sciences.
In 538 randomly selected Swedish biomedical PhDs from 2008, 50% of the external examiners came from abroad, most commonly
USA and UK. The sex distribution between candidates was equal, while 17% of the external examiners were women. Twice as many
women candidates as men had women examiners. Swedish PhDs are based on work published in international peer-reviewed journals;
the median number of works per thesis was 4. The Swedish thesis examination system offers a model for international cross-fertilisation.
KeywordsScientific communication-Internationalisation of science-Cross-border collaboration-Electronic theses dissertations (ETD)-Common doctorate-International Thesis Line
The present paper examines aspects of how students are trained to be scientists during their years in graduate school. The data were collected through open-ended interviews with academic research scientists, and the framework for analysis is provided by a generic social process scheme. My objective is to demonstrate how the social process of managing students is integral to our understanding of the day-to-day activities of scientists. Among the findings is the notion that what is formally taught and written down is not as significant as those things that the students learn through doing and participating in formal and informal interaction with senior students and faculty. The data also appear to suggest that any notion we might have of the rigid and prescribed nature of graduate science education does not match what actually takes place. Rather, the successful completion of research projects and the transition from student to scientist emerges through social interaction that reflects individual differences and the circumstances arising in particular situations and contexts.
This article examines the emerging phenomenon of global cooperation in research between industrialised countries, manifested in large increases in copublication between Europe and other regions, increasing focus on single global facilities in big science and the emergence of global cooperative programmes. Motivations for cooperation are examined, distinguishing between direct benefits to the research and indirect strategic, economic or political benefits. Barriers include the growing significance of competitiveness issues and a mismatch of institutions. It is concluded that formal arrangements are beginning to catch up with the very substantial extent of `bottom-up' global cooperation. Issues are raised for European programmes including the nature of a European platform within global alliances, the strategic position of Europe in the broader pattern of scientific relations and the impracticability of maintaining programmes with restricted access to foreign participants.
This paper estimates the relationships among the attributes of graduate economics programs and the occupational choices and publishing proficiency of recent Ph.D.s. The estimates indicate that research experience in graduate school (e.g. working as a research assistant, submitting and pu