An award as principal investigator (PI) is an aspiration for many post-PhD researchers. However, we know little of the actual journey from PhD graduation to achieving this goal. Using a qualitative narrative approach, this study explored how eight science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine post-PhD researchers (on contracts and…

Interest plays a major role in the doctoral experience. However, previous research has not considered how the national context might influence interest. This study focused on exploring cross-national variation in doctoral students' experiences by comparing Finnish, UK and Spanish doctoral students' research interests. Participants (n = 2.426)…

During the past two decades, PhD graduate numbers have increased dramatically with graduates viewed by governments as a means to advance the knowledge economy and international competitiveness. Concurrently, universities have also invested in policies to monitor satisfaction, retention, and timely completion--and researchers have expanded the…

International policy changes that have prioritised increasing growth in the numbers of doctoral students have led to wide-ranging debate about the changing purpose of the doctorate. However, there has been little research aimed at investigating doctoral supervisors' views of the purpose of the doctorate, despite the significant role supervisors…

Social support from the supervisor and the researcher community has been identified as one of the determinants for successful completion of doctoral studies. Still surprisingly little is known about the function of social support for early career Post-PhD researchers. Even less is known about the individual variation in experienced social support…

Two decades of research into early career researchers has highlighted the interaction of a constellation of influences in making sense of their experiences. Such research largely draws on either quantitative or qualitative traditions. While both traditions explore similar phenomena, research questions are often framed differently and use different…

Post-PhD researchers working at universities are contributors to a country's productivity and competitiveness mostly through writing, which becomes a means to establish their scholarly identity as they contribute to knowledge. However, little is known about researchers' writing perceptions, and their interrelations with engagement in research,…