Abstract:

This paper takes the 1838 awardees of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) as research subjects, and makes a quantitative research on the career development path and influence factors of Chinese science researchers from the perspectives of age and proportion of entering important node events by using relevant investigation data which was collected in 2017. The overall situation of the sample data is as follows: all the subjects have doctor degrees, 53% of the subjects have post-doctoral experiences, 52.1% of the subjects have professor or senior professional titles, male and female science researchers account for 80.6% and 19.4% respectively, and the average age of the subjects is 42.6 years old. Besides, at present, the proportion of subjects working in colleges and universities is 81.8%, and those working in scientific research institution is 15.6%. We consider the time when science researchers obtained their doctorates as the starting point, and adopt event history analysis method to analyze several important node events in science researchers’ careers, including promotion of professional titles (such as promoted to associate professor or professor), the first time to apply for and obtain NSFC support, the first important academic output (such as the first published SCI paper), selected in talent plan for the first time, the first honorary award and the first administrative or academic position. On this basis, further analysis is performed on the impact of influencing factors such as individual and family information (gender, children situation and spouse’s degree of education), educational background (graduate university, tutor’s qualifications and post-doctoral experience) and social factors (affiliation, mobility and discipline areas) on the career growth of science researchers.
The specific research results are as follows. Firstly, after investigating and analyzing the career growth experience of science researchers, we discover that their growth path are as follows: beginning with lecturer or assistant researcher, then publishing the first SCI paper, obtaining a doctorate, being promoted to an associate professor title or vice senior professional title, applying for NSFC support, obtaining the NSFC support, winning a science and technology award, being selected in some talent plan, assuming academic position, holding the post of administration and finally being promoted to professor or senior professional title. It is worth noting that both promotion to lecturer/assistant researcher and publication of the first SCI paper took place before obtaining doctorate, and the time interval between the first time to be selected in talent plan and graduation as a doctor is the longest, with an average of 6.4 years. Secondly, on the whole, our research results support some existing research conclusions about the growth rules of science researchers from the perspective of quantitative data. For example, educational background such as highest degree graduation college and postdoctoral experience will have a positive influence on the career development of science researchers; although there is no significant difference in the timing of career development, science researchers with postdoctoral experience have an obvious advantage over those without postdoctoral experience in the proportion of entering key career events. Thirdly, the mentoring effect plays an important role in the career development of science researchers. Among them, tutors with administrative positions have the greatest influence on the career development of science researchers, the proportion of science researchers whose tutors hold administrative posts promote to professor or senior professional title, hold administrative posts, receive scientific and technological awards and have academic posts is the highest, which reflects that administration power still plays an important role in the current scientific research system in China. Fourthly, the influence of mobility experience on the career development of science researchers consists of two opposite sides. On the one hand, for science researchers with mobility experience, the growth timing of entering key career events is later than those without mobility experience, on the other hand, the proportion of science researchers entering key career events is significantly higher than those without mobility experience. Finally, gender role is still an important factor affecting the career development of science researchers. Although there is little difference between female and male science researchers in the time nodes of entering key events in their careers, the proportion of female science researchers entering key career events is much lower than that of male science researchers, which is also a factor directly leading to the lack of female science researchers in the high level talent team in China. As mentioned above, these results turn out that “cumulative effect” is still prominent during the career development of science researchers, with educational background factors including graduate universities and post-doctoral experience imposing a positive effect on career development of science researchers; the effect of accomplished tutor plays an important role during the career development of science researchers; and researchers’ mobility experience also increases the proportion of the big moments in their career.
Due to the limitation of sampling survey data, there are some limitations and shortcomings in the research. Firstly, as the research samples are all scientific researchers funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and they are at a relatively high academic level, some conclusions of our research may not be suitable to all science researchers. Secondly, the current analysis is mainly based on descriptive statistics. In the next step, we will also introduce advanced statistical analysis methods such multiple regression analysis and survival analysis to make a further probe into which factors are more important in the career development of science researchers.

Key words: science researcher, career development, growth path, influence factor, quantitative research