International research visits and careers: An analysis of bioscience academics in Japan

This paper investigates the effect of international research visits on promotion. Research visits may help to expand existing networks and promote knowledge transfer while at the same time ensuring career stability, identified as the main barrier to mobility in Europe and Japan. Using a dataset of 370 bioscience professors in Japan we find that international research visits have a positive effect on promotion and reduce the waiting time for promotion by one year. This provides evidence that these visits also benefit a researcher"s career in the long-term. This positive research visit effect is weaker for academics who also change jobs, but stronger for inbred academics. Research visits may therefore be of specific importance for otherwise immobile academics. Further, we find that while research visits of tenured staff enhance the career by providing an early chair, postdoctoral fellowships have no lasting effect on career progression

Development of originality under inbreeding : A case of life science labs in Japan

Producing original knowledge is the foundation of scientific progress. Originality is associated with certain skills and practices that can be trained and socialised. This study investigates how inbreeding as a career practice influences the socialisation of originality. An analysis based on a sample of mid-career life scientists in Japan finds that originality and associated practices are transferred to junior academics from their PhD supervisors, and that the inter-generational transfer of the practices favourable for originality is reinforced when junior academics are inbred. Hence, if senior academics have orientation towards originality, inbred junior academics are likely to succeed the same orientation; whereas if supervisor lack orientation towards originality, inbred juniors also lack the orientation. Thus, inbreeding can be a double-edged sword in developing originality

Sustainable development of science and scientists: academic training in life science labs

Academic training, where senior scientists transfer their knowledge and skills to junior scientists through apprenticeship, plays a crucial role in the development of scientists. This study focuses on two aspects of academic training, autonomy and exploration, to investigate how different modes of training are incentivized and how they affect junior scientists’ performance and career prospects. Drawing on a sample of 162 supervising professors and their 791 PhD students in life science labs in Japanese universities, this study suggests two fundamental conflicts in academic training. First, autonomy granted to PhD students under apprenticeship improves their long-term performance but decreases short-term performance. Because the latter effect costs supervisors, while the former does not benefit them in general, this inter-temporal tradeoff creates an incentive conflict between supervisors and students, inducing non-autonomous training. The short-term cost for supervisors can be compensated in the form of labor input or reputation gain from previous students in the long term, but this typically happens when students are trained with limited scope of exploration, which hinders the originality of students’ knowledge production. This reduces the diversity of knowledge production, presenting another incentive conflict between individual scientists and the collective scientific community

Impact of Ph.D. training: a comprehensive analysis based on a Japanese national doctoral survey

Ph.D. training in academic labs offers the foundation for the production of knowledge workers, indispensable for the modern knowledge-based society. Nonetheless, our understanding on Ph.D. training has been insufficient due to limited access to the inside of academic labs. Furthermore, early careers of Ph.D. graduates are often difficult to follow, which makes the evaluation of training effects challenging. To address these limitations, this study aims to illustrate the settings of Ph.D. training in academic labs and examine their impact on several training outcomes, drawing on a national survey of a cohort of 5000 Ph.D. graduates from Japanese universities. The result suggests that a supervising team structure as well as the frequency of supervision, contingent to a few contextual factors, determine the Ph.D. graduates’ career decisions, performance, and degrees of satisfaction with the training programs

Appointment, Promotion, and Mobility of Bioscience Researchers in Japan

Using a data set of 370 bioscience professors in Japan, this chapter investigates the effect of PhD training, early career job transition, and international mobility on a professor's probability of both placement at a highly ranked institution and promotion. We found that the prestige of the PhD institution is the best predictor for initial placement and that inbreeding is more common at prestigious institutions. Mobility results in promotion in lower-ranked universities, indicating a strategic decision to move down for promotional benefits. International research visits have a positive effect on promotion but do not affect access to prestigious institutions. Postdoctoral stays have no effect. We also found that merit does not determine promotion duration of early career academics or initial placement but that it does predict promotion to full professor. It also affects the propensity to be placed in a highly ranked university in mid-to late-career stages

Impact of PhD Supervising Setting : A Comprehensive Analysis based on "Japan Doctoral Human Resource Profiling, JD-Pro"

PhD training in academic labs offers the foundation for the production of frontier knowledge workers, indispensable for the modern knowledge-based society. Nonetheless, our understanding on PhD training has been insufficient due to limited access to the inside of academic labs. Furthermore, early careers of PhD graduates are often difficult to follow, which makes the evaluation of training outcome challenging. To fill in these limitations, this study aims to illustrate the settings of PhD training in academic labs and examine their impact on several aspects of training outcome, drawing on "Japan Doctoral Human Resource Profiling", a national survey of a cohort of 5000 PhD graduates from Japanese universities.Our regression analyses controlling for several variables indicate the following results: (1) PhD students who received frequent instruction by their official supervisors are likely to successfully earn degrees and engage in jobs related to their dissertation subjects; (2) frequent supervision by internal faculty members is associated with high performance both in academia (based on publications) and in industry (based on wage rates); (3) frequent supervision by external faculty members is associated with successful degree attainment and academic career choice; and (4) frequent supervision by non-faculty members (e.g., postdocs and senior students) is associated with non-academic career choice. The expansion of postgraduate education since 1991 has increased the number of students per supervisor, which has added to the workload of faculty members, along with other duties such as administration and fundraising. The result indicates that frequent supervision by multiple faculty members improves career outcomes and students' satisfaction, suggesting the need for secondary instructors as well as expert staff supporting faculty members