Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey Executive Summary

Recent reports have called for five broad classes of changes to the postdoctoral experience: (1) increase the number of fellowships, (2) increase salaries, (3) provide basic benefits, (4) increase professional development opportunities, and (5) increase levels of structured oversight. The large variability in working conditions for postdocs, even within individual departments, gives rise to a useful natural experiment: by comparing postdocs working in different conditions, we can estimate the benefits of specific measures.

From 2003 to 2005, Sigma Xi surveyed postdocs at 47 institutions employing approximately 40% of the US postdoc population. We received 7,966 responses for an overall response rate of 38%. We used linear models to estimate the effects of recommended measures on four success metrics: satisfaction, quality of the postdoc-advisor relationship, absence of postdoc-advisor conflict, and research productivity. We controlled for field, institution, demographic variables, and time as a postdoc.

The findings are intriguing: Overall, professional development and structured oversight had the broadest and largest impact on measures of success. Plans made by postdocs with their advisors at the outset of their appointments were associated with substantial benefits: postdocs with a written plan submitted papers to peer-reviewed journals at a 23% higher rate, first-authored papers at a 30% higher rate, and grant proposals at a 25% higher rate than those without plans. Postdocs whose plans specified their advisor's obligations as well as their own reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction and better advisor relations. Teaching experiences, exposure to non-academic careers, and training in proposal writing and project management were also associated with multiple positive outcomes. There are plausible causal mechanisms for these correlations and indirect evidence against non-causal alternative explanations.

Given the potential benefits of plans together with their relative rarity at present (11% of reported a written plan; 34% had a plan, written or oral, that detailed their advisor's obligations as well as their own), an increase in their use has the potential to improve the postdoctoral experience considerably. If a universal requirement for written research/career plans were to bring about the same productivity increase that was observed with existing, voluntary plans (an outcome that is by no means assured), the resulting increase in paper production would be the equivalent of having more than 10,000 additional postdocs working in the U.S. There is much to be gained from a more systematic investigation of the process of scientific training and research.

For further details:

• Davis, Geoffrey M., "Improving the Postdoctoral Experience: An Empirical Approach", to appear in The Science and Engineering Workforce in the US, Richard Freeman and Daniel Goroff, editors, NBER/University of Chicago Press.http://postdoc.sigmaxi.org/results/ScientificWorkforceChapter.pdf
• Davis, Geoffrey M., "Doctors Without Orders". American Scientist 93(3, supplement), 2005. http://postdoc.sigmaxi.org/results/