Perpetuating Racism in the Ivory: Well-Meaning Whiteness in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Although there has been a recent increased awareness of the lack of support to Black scholars in academia, initiatives and action plans to address such inequity are severely lacking. Lack of support from individuals and institutions contributes to such disparities for Black scholars, stifling growth and discovery in social and behavioral research. This flaw is due to the lack of diverse representation in the research and the academic workforce. We must acknowledge the role of anti-Black racism in science and how our fellow Black scientists are negatively affected, including the impact on their careers, work-life harmony, and overall mental wellness. We address the multifaceted effects of anti-Black racism throughout the Ivory on Black scholars, academic spaces, and the field of social and behavioral sciences in general. Finally, we offer concrete recommendations to be implemented immediately and, over time, by individual White scholars and academic institutions at large.

Gender Differences in NSF Ocean Sciences Awards

In this study, we examine how women’s representation in National Science Foundation Ocean Sciences (NSF-OCE) awards changed between 1987 and 2019 and how it varied across different programs, research topics, and award types. Women’s participation in NSF-OCE awards increased at a rate of approximately 0.6% per year from about 10% in 1987 to 30% in 2019, and the strong similarity between the temporal trends in the NSF-OCE awards and the academic workforce suggests that there was no gender bias in NSF funding throughout the 33-year study period. The programs, topics, and award types related to education showed the strongest growth, achieving and surpassing parity with men, while those related to the acquisition of shared instrumentation and equipment for research vessels had the lowest women’s representation and showed relatively little change over time. Despite being vastly outnumbered by men, women principal investigators (PIs) tended to do more collaborative work and had a more diversified “portfolio” of research and research-related activities than men. We also found no evidence of gender bias in the amount awarded to men and women PIs during the study period. These results show that, despite significant increases in women’s participation in oceanography over the past three decades, women have still not reached parity with men. Although there appears to be no gender bias in funding decisions or amount awarded, there are significant differences between women’s participation in specific research subject areas that may reflect overall systemic biases in oceanography and academia more broadly. These results highlight areas where further investment is needed to improve women’s representation.

A study on Efficient Modelling in Higher Education Academic Workforce Using Simulation

This paper shows how the Operations Research (OR) tools (in modelling and simulation) can be modified, applied in planning and their understanding of any long-term impacts due to sudden policy changes. The proposed approach is particularly useful to investigate the movements of the university academics and their impacts on changes in research, research funding, teaching and services as they are the integral parts of the career at any level. We argue that the Discrete Event Simulation (DES) approach can be used to model such dynamics in Higher Education Academic Workforce Model (HEAWM) and show that it can provide a comprehensive projection of future requirements within the context of career progression. Consequently, this HEAWM allows universities to interrogate factors influencing the academic workforce planning as this process often requires the new attributes to be tracked in the model which is difficult with other OR models. It is shown that this approach is easy to apply via DES and creation of the corresponding HEAWM provides better understanding of the factors that will influence the future workforce than the existing results.

Gender Gap in Political Science: An Analysis of the Scientific Publications and Career Paths of Italian Political Scientists

ABSTRACT This article assesses whether a gender gap in political science, identified in the international literature, also is present in the context of Italian political science. The literature has mostly centered on the comparison of female publication rates in international journals with the academic workforce in the United States, but this raises an issue of data comparability. As an alternative strategy to avoid comparability biases, this study focuses on the analysis of a single national case: Italy. The article evaluates to what extent the “glass-ceiling” effect persists for political scientists who intend to publish their contributions. By analyzing data on articles published between 2015 and 2020 by the three major Italian political science journals, this contribution shows that (1) the proportion of published articles written by female authors is lower than that of male authors; (2) the hypothesis that the lower female proportion depends on a lower female presence in the field of political science is refuted; (3) there is little collaboration between men and women; (4) there is a correlation between the presence of female editors in scientific journals and the proportion of female-authored articles; and (5) gender differences are reflected in women’s academic career progression.

Administrative transformation and managerial growth: a longitudinal analysis of changes in the non-academic workforce at Australian universities

One fundamental aspect of organizational transformation in higher education is the change to the profile of universities’ non-academic workforce. Key staffing trends identified in recent studies conducted in a variety of national settings include an increase in the proportion of non-academic staff at universities and a shift toward more highly qualified and remunerated non-academic roles. This paper examines the extent to which these trends have played out at Australian universities over the period 1997 to 2017. Drawing on unpublished sets of staffing data, the analyses show that while the proportion of non-academic positions at Australian universities has remained largely stable, there has been a striking and uniform growth in management-rank positions, concurrent with a substantial decline in lower-level and less expensive support roles. This has some significant implications, in particular the growth in more complex “corporate” structures, the relatively fewer staff to support academic work, and the increase in the relative costs associated with maintaining the non-academic workforce at Australian universities.

Developing an industry job simulation program for graduate and postdoctoral trainees in life sciences

In the life sciences, many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows find it challenging to enter the non-academic workforce after completing their programs. Through experiential learning, trainees can develop the knowledge, technical skills, soft skills, and project portfolio that employers value, and compete effectively in the job market. In this article, we share design considerations for developing a job simulation program based on our experience over five years with the Industry Team Case Study program at the University of Toronto. In this program, which is focused on the biopharmaceutical sector, trainees identify a business or policy challenge, conduct in-depth research, develop a solution to address the problem, and present their findings to industry professionals. For mentorship and coaching, trainees are matched with industry professionals. This article covers four areas of program development: starting the program, recruiting advisors and trainees, designing the program and project framework, and evaluating program effectiveness. Academic institutions and student organizations can use this information to start their own job simulation programs focused on their employment sector of interest. Employers can participate in these programs to develop and scout talent.

Family Medicine Academic Workforce of Medical Schools in Taiwan: A Nationwide Survey

Little is known about family medicine academic workforce in Taiwan, and basic data on this may aid healthcare decision-makers and contribute to the limited literature. We analyzed data from 13 medical schools in Taiwan collected by the Taiwan Association of Family Medicine from June to September 2019, regarding characteristics of medical schools, and total staff, gender, age, degree, working title (adjunct/full-time), academic level, and subspecialty of each current family medicine faculty member. Total 13 medical schools in Taiwan with an undergraduate education program in family medicine, but only nine of the 13 medical schools had family medicine departments, while four still do not. A total of 116 family medicine faculty members ranging from 33–69 years. Of these, most were male (n = 85, 73.3%), with a mean age of 43.3 years. Most faculty members possessed a master’s degree (n = 49, 42.2%), were academic lecturers (n = 49, 42.2%), were located in northern Taiwan (n = 79, 68.1%), and subspecialize in gerontology and geriatrics (n = 55, 47.4%) and hospice palliative care (n = 53, 45.7%). Additionally, most family medicine faculty in medical schools were adjunct faculty (n = 90, 77.6%), with only about one-fourth (n = 26, 22.4%) working full-time. Our study provides the most holistic census to date on academic family medicine faculty from all medical schools in Taiwan. The novel information can provide educational leaders, health policy managers, and decision-makers about the current developments of the family medicine departments in Taiwan’s medical schools. The basic data will help formulate an effective medical school family medicine education plan and improve the establishment and development of the family medicine faculty workforce to help medical education and national health policy development in the future in Taiwan.

Family Medicine Academic Workforce of Medical Schools in Taiwan: A Nationwide Survey

Little is known about family medicine academic staff in Taiwan, and basic data about this workforce may aid healthcare decision makers. We analysed data on Taiwan’s 13 medical schools collected by the Taiwan Association of Family Medicine from June to September 2019. Items included medical school names and total staff, and the gender, age, degree, working title (part-time/full-time), academic level, and sub-specialty of each current family medicine faculty member. A total of 116 family medicine faculty members were reported; most were male (n= 85, 73.3%). Ages ranged between 30 and 69 years, with a mean (SD) age of 43.3 (8.09). Faculty members with a master’s degree were the largest group (n= 49, 42.2%), and most were academic lecturers (n=49, 42.2%). Additionally, only about one-fourth (n=26, 22.4%) of family medicine faculty in medical schools were full-time, while the other three-fourths (n=90, 77.6%) were part-time faculty; most were located in northern Taiwan (n=79, 68.1%) and specialized in gerontology and geriatrics (n=55, 47.4%) and hospice palliative care (n=53, 45.7%). Our research provides the most complete census of family medicine academic physicians in medical schools in Taiwan. The results inform efforts to improve the establishment and development of family medicine departments in Taiwan.

Management of the health workforce in facing COVID-19: disinformation and absences in Brazil’s Public Policies

The objective of this research was to analyse federal government interventions in crisis management and the consequences for health professionals. This is a documentary-type qualitative research. Brazilian Federal regulations referring to work and health education produced during the pandemic emergency of COVID-19, published from January 28 to June 2, 2020, were identified. Of the total of 845 documents, 62 were selected in accordance with the inclusion criteria and were then submitted to Thematic Content Analysis. The results and discussions were grouped into four categories:workforce management, workforce protection, workforce training and academic-workforce relationship. Absence of a federal coordinating actions and policies for desinformation were identified. This lacking mechanisms for coordination contributed decisively to the tragic epidemiological situation still underway, especially in terms of the exposure of health workers to the risk of contamination, revealed in the extremely high rates of professionals infected or killed by COVID-19 in Brazil and the failure to control the pandemic in the population.