TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors contributing to the success of NIH-designated underrepresented minorities in academic and nonacademic research positions
AU - Martinez, Luis R.
AU - Boucaud, Dwayne W.
AU - Casadevall, Arturo
AU - August, Avery
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to the survey participants and the minority committees of each of the professional societies who participated in the preparation and facilitated the distribution of the survey. We are also grateful for the assistance of Stephen Parry of the Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit and for anonymous comments by the reviewers that improved the paper. L.R.M. was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under award number R15GM117501. L.R.M. has an appointment in the Infectious Diseases cluster of the Border Biomedical Research Center (National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities award number 2G12MD007592), UTEP’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions Program. A.C. was supported by the NIH under award numbers R01HL059842, R37AI033142, and R01AI052733. A.A. was supported by the NIH under award numbers AI051626, AI065566, AI073955, AI126814, and AI129422.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The American Society for Cell Biology. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/6/1
Y1 - 2018/6/1
N2 - We report the outcomes of a survey of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in life science academic (e.g., faculty) and nonacademic (e.g., research-related) positions seeking to ascertain variables that contribute to their success (e.g., favorable or desired outcome). Given that they had positions in research careers, all respondents were presumed to be successful, and we sought to identify shared factors that were associated with this success. As in previous studies, respondents reported that undergraduate research opportunities, performing research in small- to medium-sized laboratories, and access to mentors throughout all stages of training were important factors for success in their careers. Surprisingly, analysis of the survey results suggests that a record of publications in high-impact factor journals was not essential for their success. There were fundamental differences in the experiences and needs of URMs in academic and nonacademic careers. For example, academic URMs ranked having mentorship as their first choice in order of importance compared with the nonacademic respondents, who ranked this category as their fifth selection. These findings suggest that taking diverse approaches toward these groups is critical for ensuring that all of the most creative minds have an equal opportunity to contribute to realizing our national research goals and diversified workforce.
AB - We report the outcomes of a survey of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in life science academic (e.g., faculty) and nonacademic (e.g., research-related) positions seeking to ascertain variables that contribute to their success (e.g., favorable or desired outcome). Given that they had positions in research careers, all respondents were presumed to be successful, and we sought to identify shared factors that were associated with this success. As in previous studies, respondents reported that undergraduate research opportunities, performing research in small- to medium-sized laboratories, and access to mentors throughout all stages of training were important factors for success in their careers. Surprisingly, analysis of the survey results suggests that a record of publications in high-impact factor journals was not essential for their success. There were fundamental differences in the experiences and needs of URMs in academic and nonacademic careers. For example, academic URMs ranked having mentorship as their first choice in order of importance compared with the nonacademic respondents, who ranked this category as their fifth selection. These findings suggest that taking diverse approaches toward these groups is critical for ensuring that all of the most creative minds have an equal opportunity to contribute to realizing our national research goals and diversified workforce.
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U2 - 10.1187/cbe.16-09-0287
DO - 10.1187/cbe.16-09-0287
M3 - Article
C2 - 29799320
AN - SCOPUS:85064502026
SN - 1931-7913
VL - 17
JO - CBE life sciences education
JF - CBE life sciences education
IS - 2
M1 - ar35
ER -