scholarly journals The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived publication pressure among academic researchers in Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celeste Suart ◽  
Kaitlyn Neuman ◽  
Ray Truant
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Misconduct ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Citizenship Status ◽  
Publish Or Perish ◽  
Principal Investigators ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Publication Pressure ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The phenomenon of “publish-or-perish” in academia, spurred on by limited funding and academic positions, has led to increased competition and pressure on academics to publish. Publication pressure has been linked with multiple negative outcomes, including increased academic misconduct and researcher burnout. COVID-19 has disrupted research worldwide, leading to lost research time and increased anxiety amongst researchers. The objective of this study was to examine how COVID-19 has impacted perceived publication pressure amongst academic researchers in Canada. We used the revised Publication Pressure Questionnaire, in addition to Likert-type questions to discern respondents’ beliefs and concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on academic publishing. We found that publication pressure increased across academic researchers in Canada following the pandemic, with respondents reporting increased stress, increased pessimism, and decreased access to support related to publishing. Doctoral students reported the highest levels of stress and pessimism, while principal investigators had the most access to publication support. There were no significant differences in publication pressure reported between different research disciplines. Women and non-binary or genderfluid respondents reported higher stress and pessimism than men. We also identified differences in perceived publication pressure based on respondents’ publication frequency and other demographic factors, including disability and citizenship status. Overall, we document a snapshot of perceived publication pressure in Canada across researchers of different academic career stages and disciplines. This information can be used to guide the creation of researcher supports, as well as identify groups of researchers who may benefit from targeted resources.

Preparing for PhD: exploring doctoral students’ preparation strategy

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Thamrini Fadzlin Syed Mohamed ◽  
Ahmad Fahimi Amir ◽  
Nur Khadirah Ab. Rahman ◽  
Emily Abd Rahman ◽  
Afifah Quraishah Abdul Nasir
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Preparation Phase ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Preparation Strategy ◽  
Professional Doctorates ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to give insight on the important preparation task needed to be considered by prospective PhD candidates prior to the start of their study. As pursuing and obtaining a higher degree qualification is becoming more eminent for those who want to advance their academic career, crucial preparation is needed before embarking on the doctoral quest. Design/methodology/approach A small-scale study of the PhD experience was carried out in a public university in Malaysia using semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight successful doctoral students representing three different faculties to assess respondents’ experiences concerning the preparation aspect, challenges faced and strategies used to overcome the problem. Findings From the interview data, three overarching themes emerged: motives, task and financial and health as important dominators that could influence a successful venture of a PhD journey. Research limitations/implications As the present research respondents were few, further research with bigger number of respondents may shed better light in identifying other important aspect in preparation for PhD. The authors are unable, in the space of this paper, to fully explore the implications of the data, and the work of others that it builds on, for the future of professional doctorates or other types of PhD awards. As professional doctorates are fully concentrated on their professional endeavour, i.e. nursing and education, the preparation needed may include different groundwork. In addition, this study was carried out in Malaysia, where the system may not necessarily share the same characteristics to other doctoral systems in other countries. Cultural differences, the impact of age, gender and race, were other variables that could be weighed by future research in the same area. Practical implications The university’s graduate office should line-up courses to inform future doctoral candidates on the aspect of preparation at personal level that the students need to carry out. Social implications The study provides new views where potential doctoral students should be helped and guided to become more consciously aware of their decision in pursuing a higher degree. This paper provides suggestions on the guidelines of the initial preparation needed before embarking on a PhD journey and managing their own learning. Originality/value The paper establishes the important aspect of the preparation phase needed to be considered by future doctoral students before pursuing their doctoral quest.

Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Academic Career Goals

Affilia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca G. Mirick ◽  
Stephanie P. Wladkowski
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Work Productivity ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Career Goals ◽  
Full Time ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
The Impact

While more doctoral students are pregnant and/or parenting in their doctoral programs than previously, little research has focused on their experiences. This qualitative study ( N = 28) explored the experiences of female doctoral students who were pregnant during their doctoral program (in a health-care field) and their decision-making about careers postgraduation. This study examined participants’ perceptions of the implicit and explicit culture, professional expectations, and the role of these experiences on career goals and trajectories. Participants described an academic culture of high expectations, in which mothers could be successful if they maintained a silence about their identity as a mother and ensured that their family life did not negatively impact their work productivity. Some perceived lost opportunities in graduate school and/or on the job market due to pregnancies and parenting during graduate school. The impact of these experiences on postgraduate careers was diverse, but the majority spoke of wanting to find a position in a family-friendly organization where family was valued and work life balance was possible. For some, this was an academic position, while for others this was a full-time practice position or part-time work.

Against all odds: determinants of doctoral candidates’ intention to enter academia in Germany

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalle Hauss ◽  
Marc Kaulisch ◽  
Jakob Tesch
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Doctoral Training ◽  
Career Intentions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Settings ◽  
Training Conditions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Doctoral Candidates ◽  
And Training

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on doctoral students in Germany and the drivers behind their intention to enter an academic career. The aspirations of young researchers after graduating from doctoral training have become an important issue to policymakers in light of the changing nature of doctoral training. Design/methodology/approach – Borrowing from Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior, we investigate how attitudes towards a career in academia, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control determine graduates’ intentions to pursue an academic career. We extend the model of Ajzen by measurements of research and training conditions in order to estimate the impact of organizational settings. We analyze a sample of 5,770 doctoral candidates from eight universities and three funding organizations. Findings – We find that apart from attitudes towards careers, academic career intentions are related to research and training conditions at the organizational level. Further, we find that large differences within the field of study and affiliation to a university or funding organization provide substantial explanations. Originality/value – This paper explores doctoral candidates’ academic career intentions which are an important precondition for the propagation of academic staff. For developers and practitioners in the field of doctoral training, our results yield a good understanding of the relationship between organizational settings at the level of doctoral training and career intentions.

Self-Reflective Insights on What I Have Learned in an Evolving Academic Career Model: Accounting Scholarship, Administration, and Diversity

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Callahan
Keyword(s):  
African American Woman ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
American Woman ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Business College ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Career Model ◽  
Accounting Model ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT In this paper, I offer personal insights based on my experiences (thus far) in an evolving academic accounting career model. While I value all aspects of an academic career responsibilities (teaching, research, and service), this narrative focuses primarily on the role of accounting scholarship and, broadly, the impact of diversity on the same. I offer these perspectives and personal experiences from the unique vantage point as an African American woman, focused first on contributing to top-tired accounting scholarship, and more recently on roles as an administrator of an accounting department and business college. While my academic journey is unique by objective measures (often dubbed “trailblazing” by others), I offer suggestions that may be useful to any academic who is dedicated to success in our field. Given the evolving accounting model and challenges ahead, my overriding goal remains to encourage junior accounting colleagues to persevere, as an accounting academic career is richly rewarding.

scholarly journals Disruptions, distractions, and discoveries: Doctoral students’ reflections on a pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 147332502097334
Author(s):  
Chinyere Y Eigege ◽  
Priscilla P Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Research Agendas ◽  
Work Education ◽  
The Impact

This paper describes the reflections of two social work PhD students based on their personal and professional experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. The students describe their positionality and use that to expound on the impact of the pandemic on their lives. They reflect on the disruptions to their social work education and research priorities including transitioning to online learning and modifications to research agendas. They then discuss ongoing distractions such as worries about getting sick, mental health concerns, and financial constraints. They share their discoveries about glaring disparities in coronavirus infection and death rates, the need to adjust research agendas in response to current events, and the urgency for qualitative research strategies to add meaning to the numbers being reported. In addition, the authors describe shared experiences and intersections they discovered while writing this essay. Finally, recommendations for practice include recommitting to social work values to help surmount the ongoing waves of this pandemic; reimagining social work education so that disparities and injustice intersect with every subject taught and graduates become experts at leading social change; and harnessing the untapped potential of qualitative research to drive real, systemic change.

scholarly journals Epistemic corruption and the research impact agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-167
Author(s):  
Ian James Kidd ◽  
Jennifer Chubb ◽  
Joshua Forstenzer
Keyword(s):  
Research Impact ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Epistemic Practice ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Critical Scrutiny ◽  
The Impact

Contemporary epistemologists of education have raised concerns about the distorting effects of some of the processes and structures of contemporary academia on the epistemic practice and character of academic researchers. Such concerns have been articulated using the concept of epistemic corruption. In this article, we lend credibility to these theoretically motivated concerns using the example of the research impact agenda during the period 2012–2014. Interview data from UK and Australian academics confirm that the impact agenda system, at its inception, facilitated the development and exercise of epistemic vices. As well as vindicating theoretically motivated claims about epistemic corruption, inclusion of empirical methods and material can help us put the concept to work in ongoing critical scrutiny of evolving forms of the research impact agenda.

scholarly journals Detecting anomalous citation groups in journal networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadamori Kojaku ◽  
Giacomo Livan ◽  
Naoki Masuda
Keyword(s):  
Null Model ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Scientific Communities ◽  
Citation Behavior ◽  
Journal Editors ◽  
Journal Citation Reports ◽  
Academic Climate ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Publication Standards

AbstractThe ever-increasing competitiveness in the academic publishing market incentivizes journal editors to pursue higher impact factors. This translates into journals becoming more selective, and, ultimately, into higher publication standards. However, the fixation on higher impact factors leads some journals to artificially boost impact factors through the coordinated effort of a “citation cartel” of journals. “Citation cartel” behavior has become increasingly common in recent years, with several instances being reported. Here, we propose an algorithm—named CIDRE—to detect anomalous groups of journals that exchange citations at excessively high rates when compared against a null model that accounts for scientific communities and journal size. CIDRE detects more than half of the journals suspended from Journal Citation Reports due to anomalous citation behavior in the year of suspension or in advance. Furthermore, CIDRE detects many new anomalous groups, where the impact factors of the member journals are lifted substantially higher by the citations from other member journals. We describe a number of such examples in detail and discuss the implications of our findings with regard to the current academic climate.

Career Goal Profiles of Early Career Scientists: A Person-Centered Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 089484532110172
Author(s):  
Ruth Noppeney ◽  
Anna M. Stertz ◽  
Bettina S. Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Latent Profile Analysis ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Career Goal ◽  
Transition Analysis ◽  
Flat Profile ◽  
Career Options ◽  
Person Centered Approach

Obtaining a doctorate offers various career options. This study takes a person-centered approach to identify interest profiles. Career goals (professorate, entrepreneur, etc.) were assessed at two time points (1-year interval) in a sample of doctoral students and doctorate holders from the STEM fields in German-speaking areas ( NT 1 = 2,077). Latent profile analysis revealed that a four-profile solution provided the best data fit: At T1, 33.0% of the participants aimed for a management position in industry, 16.9% pursued an academic career, 30.1% were interested in activities without leadership responsibilities, and 20.1% had a relatively flat career-goal profile. Latent transition analysis indicated that most changes occurred for those classified into the flat profile, while strong interest in a management career was very stable over time. Additionally, the attainment of the doctorate seemed to be a good predictor for profile membership: Doctorate holders were more likely to be clearly dedicated to an academic career.

The academic profession in Russia’s two capitals: The impact of 20 years of transition

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 626-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Sivak ◽  
Maria Yudkevich
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Academic Profession ◽  
University Faculty ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Personal Strain ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Russian Universities

This paper studies the dynamics of key characteristics of the academic profession in Russia based on the analysis of university faculty in the two largest cities in Russia – Moscow and St Petersburg. We use data on Russian university faculty from two large-scale comparative studies of the academic profession (‘The Carnegie Study’ carried out in 1992 in 14 countries, including Russia, and ‘The Changing Academic Profession Study’, 2007–2012, with 19 participating countries and which Russia joined in 2012) to look at how faculty’s characteristics and attitudes toward different aspects of their academic life changed over 20 years (1992–2011) such as faculty’s views on reasons to leave or to stay at a university, on university’s management and the role of faculty in decision making. Using the example of universities in the two largest Russian cities, we demonstrate that the high degree of overall centralization of governance in Russian universities barely changed in 20 years. Our paper provides comparisons of teaching/research preferences and views on statements concerning personal strain associated with work, academic career perspectives, etc., not only in Russian universities between the years 1992 and 2012, but also in Russia and other ‘Changing Academic Profession’ countries.

scholarly journals Investigating the Impact of Competition and Incentive Design on Performance of Crowdfunding Projects: A Case of Independent Movies

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-810
Author(s):  
Li Chen
Keyword(s):  
Real Data ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Incentive Design ◽  
Competition Intensity ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Competition Pressure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Funding Level

Recently, crowdfunding has become a popular e-commerce model based on web 2.0 platforms for fundraisers to collect funding from a large group of supporters using the Internet. However, many projects failed to reach their funding targets. Despite the growing interest of academic researchers and e-commerce professionals in identifying drivers of crowdfunding success, important factors like competition and incentive design have not received much attention in prior research. In this study we aim to fill this gap by investigating the impact of competition and incentive design on the performance of crowdfunding projects. Drawing upon literature of entrepreneurship, we develop a research model involving key factors such as competition intensity and the number of reward levels. Using real data of 209 independent movie projects of an online crowdfunding platform, we test the proposed hypotheses of the impact of competition and incentive design on crowdfunding success. Our results show that competition plays a significant role in crowdfunding performance. The higher competition pressure is, the lower performance of crowdfunding projects will be. We also find that factors such as the number of reward levels and the plan of attending movie festivals are essential to the success of crowdfunding projects, but the funding level of getting the top reward does not exert a significant impact. Our study contributes to the e-commerce literature by further exploring the mechanism of crowdfunding success with theoretical explanation and empirical evidence. Researchers and professionals can apply our theoretical findings regarding competition and incentive design in other e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, our results provide useful managerial insights and operational policies for project founders and managers of crowdfunding platforms.

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