The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting
Postdoctoral fellows (postdocs) comprise a large sector of the US scientific workforce. A substantial majority of postdocs are in a holding pattern, seeking tenure-track assistant professorships. We model the postdoc population as a labour force in waiting—in queue. Postdocs enter the queue as they...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122786 |
| _version_ | 1811093065451962368 |
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| author | Andalib, Maryam A. Ghaffarzadegan, Navid Larson, Richard Charles |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society Andalib, Maryam A. Ghaffarzadegan, Navid Larson, Richard Charles |
| author_sort | Andalib, Maryam A. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Postdoctoral fellows (postdocs) comprise a large sector of the US scientific workforce. A substantial majority of postdocs are in a holding pattern, seeking tenure-track assistant professorships. We model the postdoc population as a labour force in waiting—in queue. Postdocs enter the queue as they start their first postdoctoral appointment, and they leave in one of two ways: (i) obtaining the ‘queue service’ desired by the majority of postdocs, that is, an assistant professorship, or (2) reneging from the queue and seeking other positions. Using recent data from the US Survey of Doctorate Recipients, we show that the postdoc queue is one of those rare queueing systems where most of the queuers eventually renege rather than receive service. We find that only about 17% of postdocs ultimately land tenure-track positions. The mean time in queue (postdoc career length) is 2.9 years, with significant variations across disciplines. We discuss policy implications. Keywords: science policy; research policy; science workforce; postdoc; queueing theory |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:38:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/122786 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:38:54Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1227862022-10-02T03:10:10Z The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting Andalib, Maryam A. Ghaffarzadegan, Navid Larson, Richard Charles Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society Postdoctoral fellows (postdocs) comprise a large sector of the US scientific workforce. A substantial majority of postdocs are in a holding pattern, seeking tenure-track assistant professorships. We model the postdoc population as a labour force in waiting—in queue. Postdocs enter the queue as they start their first postdoctoral appointment, and they leave in one of two ways: (i) obtaining the ‘queue service’ desired by the majority of postdocs, that is, an assistant professorship, or (2) reneging from the queue and seeking other positions. Using recent data from the US Survey of Doctorate Recipients, we show that the postdoc queue is one of those rare queueing systems where most of the queuers eventually renege rather than receive service. We find that only about 17% of postdocs ultimately land tenure-track positions. The mean time in queue (postdoc career length) is 2.9 years, with significant variations across disciplines. We discuss policy implications. Keywords: science policy; research policy; science workforce; postdoc; queueing theory National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (Grant 2U01GM094141-05) 2019-11-06T23:40:35Z 2019-11-06T23:40:35Z 2018-03-30 2017-09 2019-11-06T17:49:55Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1092-7026 1099-1743 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122786 Andalib, Maryam A. et al. "The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting." Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 35, 6 (November/December 2018): 675–686 © 2018 Wiley en 10.1002/sres.2510 Systems Research and Behavioral Science Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Andalib, Maryam A. Ghaffarzadegan, Navid Larson, Richard Charles The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting |
| title | The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting |
| title_full | The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting |
| title_fullStr | The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting |
| title_short | The Postdoc Queue: A Labour Force in Waiting |
| title_sort | postdoc queue a labour force in waiting |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122786 |
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