Future of Research
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Making postdocs “less invisible” in academia
Friday, March 23, 2018
12:00 PM
RRI 101
Abstract: Future of Research (FoR) aims to champion, engage and empower early career scientists with evidence-based resources to improve the scientific research endeavor. As part of this goal, we study academic policies that affect postdocs. Postdocs make up a large portion of the biomedical workforce. However, they are typically considered the “invisible” population in academia. Lack of data on postdoc numbers, titles and pay contributes to the difficulty of devising novel, or improving existing, policies for postdocs. Our studies examined national postdoc trends in these areas. We monitored institutional postdoc salary policies as a result of labor law changes; obtained actual postdoc salaries in U.S. public institutions; and found large institutional variability in reporting postdoc numbers in an established NSF survey. Given these findings, we call for better measures to assess postdoc population trends. We hope these efforts will make postdocs a “less invisible” population, and contribute to an overall recognition of the need for increased academic transparency.
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