Doctoral Students In Sciences Research Articles

우수 박사과정생의 학술적 사회자본에 관한 연구 : 이공계열을 중심으로

우수 박사과정생의 학술적 사회자본에 관한 연구 : 이공계열을 중심으로

Making the Academic Writing Process Explicit for Doctoral Students in the Social Sciences

The purpose of this article is to clarify the academic writing process and stages of publication for novice scholars. With doctoral student mentorship being highly dependent on relationships with faculty mentors, the quality and type of mentorship received varies widely. We designed this article to provide a shared starting point for new scholars trying to navigate the writing and publication process. We use our experiences as three newly tenured faculty members to provide some guidance for students. Additionally, this article adds to the existing body of knowledge on the academic writing process by bringing some hidden curriculum and norms to the forefront and making the information available to all students. Article highlights include four areas of focus of academic publishing: (a) the presentation to publication process; (b) journal choice and preparing for journal submission; (c) revision as a communal process; and (d) the journal response. Within this article, we have recommended several places where new scholars can make decisions ranging from where to submit papers, who and how to ask for help, and ways that they can respond to reviewers.

Creating Continuous Change: Adapting an NSF ADVANCE Approach to the Development of the AGEP-NC Model of Institutional Transformation

Lessons learned through the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE) program continue to pay dividends long after the ADVANCE grant period concludes. This article details how strategies implemented in an ADVANCE Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation and Dissemination (PAID) project at one institution in 2008-2012, which were themselves adapted from earlier ADVANCE projects, have been applied to address issues of equity and inclusion for doctoral students in science, technology, engineering and mathematical sciences (STEM) graduate programs at three institutions. We detail the successful elements of the ADVANCE PAID project; the steps taken to evaluate, adapt and integrate them into a comprehensive model of change for an Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) project; and the impact of the AGEP project to date. We then generalize this process to provide recommendations for scholar-practitioners wishing to integrate elements of past ADVANCE and AGEP projects into current and future initiatives for lasting institutional change.

Transitions Across Multi-Worlds: Experiences of Chinese International Doctoral Students in STEM Fields

In the context of internationalization, this longitudinal qualitative study explores the diverse and challenging experiences of Chinese international doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The endeavor is to identify factors that facilitate or constrain their successful completion of a PhD abroad over time. By incorporating a three-dimensional multi-world conceptual framework that highlights the relationship between an individual’s research, personal, and social worlds, this study identified six patterns of congruence or difference across the worlds and the corresponding transitions, illustrated with narratives for each pattern. Evidence shows that congruence of an individual’s multi-worlds facilitates, but difference does not necessarily mean constraint when differences are respected, understood, and accommodated. Rather, it is how the transitions are negotiated that is important for the success of transnational and transcultural PhD study. This article contributes a conceptual framework, empirical evidence, and practical implications to the understanding of doctoral study abroad experiences.

Searching for Metacognitive Generalities: Areas of Convergence in Learning to Write for Publication Across Doctoral Students in Science and Engineering

What aspects of writing are doctoral students metacognitive about when they write research articles for publication? Contributing to the recent conversation about metacognition in genre pedagogy, this study adopts a qualitative approach to illustrate what students have in common, across disciplines and levels of expertise, and the dynamic interplay of genre knowledge and metacognition in learning to write for research. 24 doctoral students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) were recruited from subsequent runs of a genre-based writing course and were interviewed within a 2-year period when they submitted an article for publication, 3 to 11 months after course completion. Over time and across disciplines, doctoral students’ metacognition converges on four main themes: genre analysis as a “tool” to read and write, audience and the readers’ mind, rhetorical strategies, and the writing process. Furthermore, these themes are extensively combined in the students’ thinking, confirming conceptualizations of expertise as an integration of knowledge types. Metacognition of these themes invoked increased perceived confidence and control over writing, suggesting key areas where metacognitive intervention may be promising.

The importance of collaboration and supervisor behaviour for gender differences in doctoral student performance and early career development

ABSTRACT This article provides an explanation for previously observed gender differences in scientific performance during doctoral studies and the early career. Data is based on doctoral students in science, technology, and medicine at a Swedish university. We collected information on each doctoral student's publication and employment history. We also created publication histories for the doctoral candidates main supervisors. The data was supplemented with information on gender, age, and research area. Informed by theories on academic socialization, our research questions focus on how gender differences in productivity during doctoral studies and the early career relate to research collaboration and behaviour/characteristics of the main supervisor. Results show that the gender gap in productivity during doctoral studies, and the early career, can be explained by the degree to which the doctoral students co-author publications with their main supervisors and the size of their collaborative networks.

English for specific playfulness? How doctoral students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics manipulate genre

Genre analysis is a powerful pedagogy to foster doctoral students' awareness of academic writing conventions and variation. Nonetheless, concerns remain about the risks of promoting rhetorical ‘painting by numbers’, with writers glumly surrendering agency and authorial voice. Recent reappraisals of genre pedagogy encourage fostering genre manipulation, innovation, and play. We examine whether genre pedagogy can indeed promote conscious manipulation and even playfulness of academic genres, or at least an enhanced sense of control over conventions. Data from interviews with 30 doctoral students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) collected over a two-year period were analyzed to extract comments pertaining to deliberate authorial choices, unconventionalities in writing or writing processes, and positive shifts in writing perceptions. The findings reveal students' appreciation of genre awareness and a sense of control from knowledge of genre conventions, affording them agency in their writing. Crucially, students do not appear to surrender to standardization, but are instead agentive and metacognitive in their approach to writing, using their genre knowledge to compose, manipulate, and critique their genres.

Collaborative research projects in doctoral programs: a case study in Portugal

ABSTRACT Universities are renovating the formats and configurations of their doctoral programs to become more international, collaborative and attentive to labor market needs. In a competitive global setting doctoral programs compete to attract students, promote international partnerships, engage with industry and provide students with the social capital necessary for future employability. A quantitative study of 149 PhD students in 15 collaborative doctoral programs between Portugal and three US universities offers insight into doctoral programs structured around international mobility, collaborative research projects, and university-industry collaborations. The survey results show that doctoral students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields value programs that promote academic opportunities with international networks and participation in research projects. Social capital seems to have been acquired mainly through networks and contacts with other researchers and peers. The results reveal the limitations of the university-industry collaborations and that most students continue to anticipate employment in academia.

What's Money Got to Do with It? An Examination of the Relationships between Sources of Financial Support and the Post-Graduation Career Plans of Latina and Latino Doctoral Students in the Social Sciences

More Latina and Latino faculty members are needed to mentor Latina and Latino students, as well as diversify academic research, and improve campus racial climates and retention of minority faculty members. This paper focuses on the sources of financial support that can facilitate access to faculty careers. I use multinomial logistic estimation and predicted probabilities to examine relationships between various sources of financial support (e.g., assistantships) and Latina and Latino social scientists' post-graduation plans. Plots of predicted probabilities show that the relationships between sources of support and Latina and Latinos' post-graduation plans are similar among other racial and ethnic groups.

Gaining insight into doctoral persistence: Development and validation of Doctorate-related Need Support and Need Satisfaction short scales

Based on self-determination theory, a few studies have identified competence satisfaction as a major determinant of doctoral persistence. However, these studies did not use scales validated in the domain of doctoral studies, and failed to include all dimensions of the target constructs of need support and need satisfaction, or used a composite score of need support. To address these limitations, we conducted two studies (total N = 1458) aimed at developing and validating short, self-report scales of Doctorate-related Need Support and Need Satisfaction (D-N2S). The scales exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties of reliability as well as construct, criterion-related, known-groups, predictive, and face kinds of validity. All but one dimension (i.e., relatedness satisfaction) was positively related to doctoral persistence intentions and all but two dimensions (i.e., autonomy support and relatedness satisfaction) were negatively related to actual dropout. As expected, doctoral students in social sciences and humanities reported higher levels of autonomy support and autonomy satisfaction but lower levels of relatedness satisfaction than doctoral students in sciences and technology or health sciences. Representing another important contribution of our research, results further suggest that dimensions of need support (or satisfaction) should not be combined into a general measure of support (or satisfaction).

Academics’ “ambidextrous behavior” and doctoral science mentoring practices

Although academics (academic scientists) are the vanguards in mentoring doctoral science students, emergent science policies increasingly push academics to venture into industrial science work with industrial scientists. This puts academics in a situation of heightened role strain given that academic life is already exacting in terms of teaching, research, and service. Now, academics have to balance between intrinsic and extrinsic demands. In this paper, we examine how academics’ involvement in academic and in industrial science activities impacts how academic scientists mentor doctoral students. We introduce the idea of academics’ “ambidextrous behavior” and apply it in three scientific activities, namely: (1) formally collaborating in academic and in industrial research projects, (2) informally networking with academic and with industrial scientists, and (3) producing patents and publications. We test the hypothesis that academics, who exhibit ambidextrous behavior, manifest mentoring practices that differ from colleagues who do not exhibit such behavior. We adduce evidence from a face-to-face survey of 104 East Asian chemical science professors, and analyze data using principal component and regression analyses. Our results provide insights on how academics’ involvement in both academic and industrial science activities shapes the way doctoral students are mentored. Our work also exemplifies how the concept of ambidextrous behavior can be applied in examining aspects of scientific apprenticeship in academia at a time when knowledge production increasingly takes place at the intersecting sectors of Etzkowitz’s (Res Policy 27(8):823–833, 1998) Triple Helix science (i.e., academia, government, and industry).

Enjoying and enduring: A Gaman (我慢) experience of Filipino doctoral science students in Japan as "Teachers as Learners"

Enjoying and enduring: A Gaman (我慢) experience of Filipino doctoral science students in Japan as "Teachers as Learners"

“Publish SCI papers or no degree”: practices of Chinese doctoral supervisors in response to the publication pressure on science students

Publishing English papers in journals listed in Science Citation Index (SCI) has become a requirement for degree conferment for doctoral science students at many universities in China. The publication requirement engenders high pressure for doctoral students and their supervisors and shapes the politics of the relationship between the two parties. This is illustrated in the present paper which reports a study conducted at a prestigious university in east China. Focusing on the case of a research group in biochemistry led by an expert writer (the supervisor), the study aimed to find out, from the supervisor's perspective, what revising papers for the students means to him, and what the students learn as a result of their papers being revised. It is shown that the students depend on the supervisor to meet the publication requirement, and the supervisor believes an average student cannot write a publishable paper. The paper discusses the disempowering effect of the publication requirement, and concludes that there is a role for a course on academic English writing, and that the focus on “publishing SCI papers or no degree” should be shifted at the policy level and long-term planning should go into the training of EAP-qualified language professionals.

Persistence motivations of Chinese doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Persistence motivations of Chinese doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The Ethnic Composition of Science and Engineering Research Laboratories in the United States

AbstractThe United States has been a top destination country for science and engineering (S&E) graduate education for foreign talent for many years. Despite the clear existence of foreign students in the USA, relatively little is known about the factors influencing the flow of foreign students. In this study, we examine foreign doctoral students in science and engineering, and test whether “ethnic affinity” plays a role in the ethnic composition of research laboratories (in what follows, “labs”) in US universities. In order to test this hypothesis, we conduct a web search, and select 164 science and engineering laboratory web pages for analysis. Among these 164 labs, 82 are directed by foreign‐born faculty (Korean, Chinese, Indian or Turkish). These 82 are matched with labs that are in the same department of the same university, but directed by a native (US origin) faculty member. We find strong evidence that labs directed by foreign‐born faculty are more likely to be populated by students from the same country of origin than are labs directed by native faculty. The percentage of students working in a lab from a nationality (foreign or native) is higher when they share nativity with the director. We seek to draw attention to the effect of affinity on the ethnic composition of research labs at the micro level that translates into the ethnic composition of the scientific community at the macro level. Further, these results emphasize the role of lab directors in future enrolments, creating scientific human capital, and contributing to the “brain circulation” phenomenon in the global context.

Carrier Design and Graduate School Reform for Postadoctoral Fellows and Doctoral Students in Science and Engineering(Network Pages for Professional Development of Physicists)

Carrier Design and Graduate School Reform for Postadoctoral Fellows and Doctoral Students in Science and Engineering(Network Pages for Professional Development of Physicists)

International Graduate Education and Innovation: Evidence and Issues for East Asian Technology Policy

We discuss the policy questions and debate surrounding the role of international (foreign-born) graduate students in the productivity of universities, particularly in the United States. Concerns about national security have induced U.S. immigration authorities to limit the number of foreign doctoral students in science and engineering (S&E) departments in American research universities. This policy has reduced such enrollments beyond the decline already in evidence. Many university officials and business leaders are concerned that this reduction in foreign S&E students will damage domestic research capabilities and broader economic innovation. We review two recent studies of how the presence of international graduate students contributes to scientific journal publications and patents awarded to universities. Both studies, one using macro time-series data and one using micro student-level panel data, find strongly positive impacts, suggesting that limited access to foreign students could diminish knowledge creation and innovation. We then relate these results to educational and innovation policy in key East Asian economies. These nations have an opportunity to increase their enrollments of S&E students, which should enhance their own innovation capacities. However, to achieve full growth benefits from such changes in visa policy, governments need to ensure their economies are conducive to robust and competitive innovation processes.

Shaping Chinese novice scientists’ manuscripts for publication

Researchers of scholarly literacy are becoming more aware that a published research article, especially if it is written by an English as an Additional Language (EAL) author, needs to be viewed as a product involving a range of “shapers” who participate in the editorial process (e.g., Burrough-Boenisch, 2003). Drawing on data gathered over a period of several years from doctoral science students and their supervisors at a major research university in mainland China, this paper considers such shapers’ roles in this group of novice scholars’ international publication attempts. Three main sources of English-language correction assistance are used: supervisors, peers, and language professionals. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these sources are analyzed. In addition, it is noted that professional editorial services are still used rarely in China, although they have the potential to develop if the services become more accessible, financially more affordable, and more reputable. It is concluded that, in the long run, it is in the interest of EAL authors to receive editorial assistance in their local scholarly community from systemized partnerships between language professionals and subject professionals, and that academic journals should join in the efforts of assisting EAL authors to overcome the English-language barrier in international publication.

Language Re-use among Chinese Apprentice Scientists Writing for Publication

Plagiarism has been a topic of considerable discussion in Applied Linguistics. In the literature on plagiarism a distinction can be found between the taking of the ideas of others and the taking of others’ words. In this paper the focus is on the latter, which is referred to as ‘language re-use’. Specifically, the study focuses on the practices and beliefs of a group of doctoral science students at a major university in China regarding language re-use in writing for publication in English. Examples are presented illustrating the students’ strategies of language re-use in each section of the prototypical IMRD (Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion) structure of the genre of scientific research articles, along with the writers’ justifications for such writing practices. It can be seen that the students’ language re-use goes well beyond formulaic expressions and technical terminology which are characteristics of the scientific research article, yet the students believe that their textual practices do not constitute plagiarism, which, to them, primarily means the stealing of others’ work. For English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction targeted at novice scientists, the paper calls for a pedagogy that acknowledges and exploits the formulaicity of scientific writing as well as discusses the relationship between ‘form’ (language) and ‘content’ (the work reported) in natural sciences.

Accuracy of scale conceptions in science: Mental maneuverings across many orders of spatial magnitude

The use of unifying themes that span the various branches of science is recommended to enhance curricular coherence in science instruction. Conceptions of spatial scale are one such unifying theme. This research explored the accuracy of spatial scale conceptions of science phenomena across a spectrum of 215 participants: fifth grade, seventh grade, ninth grade, twelfth grade, and doctoral students in science. Conceptions spanning sizes from one nanometer to one billion meters were investigated through use of written assessments and individual interviews. Results showed that accuracy of conceptions at small scale were not symmetrical with respect to conceptions at large scale. Large scale accuracy tended to decline in a smooth, uniform fashion as the scale increased, whereas small scale accuracy displayed a discontinuity at the microscopic level. To conceptually interact with scales far removed from human scale, experts used strategies of mentally jumping to a new scale-world. Experts tended not to transition smoothly between the differently scaled worlds but rather to make a discontinuous leap, maintaining abstract linkages between the worlds via mathematics. Implications of these findings for curriculum development and classroom instruction are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 1061–1085, 2006