How accomplished does one need to be in order to be competitive on the Canadian cognitive psychology job market? We looked at the publication record of everyone who was hired as an Assistant Professor in Canadian cognitive psychology divisions with PhD programs between 2006 and 2016 (N = 64). Individuals who were hired from 2006-2011 averaged 10 journal article publications up to and including the year that they were hired. However, this increased by 57% to 18 publications by 2012-2016. Notably, this increase (a) occurred despite an increase in the number of positions since 2010, (b) was not restricted to top-ranked institutions, (c) did not come at the cost of decreasing quality in research (based on citations), and (d) was not driven by longer postdoctoral fellowships. To supply context, we obtained data on the publication records of 98 eminent and early career award winning cognitive psychologists when they obtained their first faculty position. The correlation between year of hire and publication number in the full sample was strongly positive (r = .47) and driven primarily by a substantial increase in recent years. This suggests that the increasingly competitive job market is not specific to Canada. Finally, we found that behavioural (as opposed to neuroscience) researchers and those who obtained their PhD from Canadian universities may be at particular risk in the job market. At a time when increasing numbers of PhDs are graduating from cognitive psychology programs, it has likely never been more difficult to obtain a faculty position.
Unpaid Work in Marine Science: A Snapshot of the Early-Career Job Market
