First Leibniz PostDoc Survey 2020

Postdoctoral researchers play a critical role in scientific research and are integral to many research groups. However, for various reasons, postdoctoral researchers are often overlooked or misrepresented as a homogeneous group of researchers. The principal aims of the Leibniz PostDoc Survey were, therefore, to first understand who Leibniz PostDocs are and, secondly, attempt to provide some insight into their experiences, interests, and needs.

The first Leibniz PostDoc survey was conducted online in Germany from July to October 2022. The survey´s target group was all researchers in the Leibniz Association who have completed their PhD or submitted their doctoral thesis (but not necessarily finished their oral disputation) and have not yet gained a permanent position as a professor. Leibniz PostDocs were invited via email (distributed via the Leibniz PostDoc Network mailing list). Additionally, representatives in each Leibniz institute were asked to distribute the survey invitation internally via their respective postdoc mailing lists. The data set contains responses from 816 participants, which represent around 30 % of all Leibniz PostDocs. However, not all respondents answered every question, so the total number of responses for each question varies. The respondents were selected by means of a complete survey.

The questionnaire was programmed in Lime Survey and included items on demographics, contracts and payments, working hours and tasks, career goals and development, working situations, good scientific practices (including conflicts and discrimination), and a section covering the needs and boundaries of international Leibniz PostDocs.<br>1. Information about doctoral thesis and current position: doctoral degree completed; year when doctoral degree completed; doctoral thesis submitted; year when doctoral thesis submitted; year planned submission thesis; year of working start thesis; country of institution for degree; identification with the term postdoc; used term to describe own position/ status.

2. Current employment at Leibniz Institute: satisfaction with one´s situation at Leibniz Institute in general; satisfaction with different job aspects at Leibniz Institute (e.g. job tasks, income, amount of actual working hours, organization of working time, opportunities for career advancement, etc.); start of working as a postdoc at the current Leibniz Institute (year); permanent employment contract at the beginning; months of contract duration if not permanent; contract changed since postdoc-start; current contract is permanent; months of contract duration if not permanent; earlier position as doctoral researcher at Leibniz Institute.

Contract: Funding and duration: kind of funding of the current position (Institute budget, third-party funding, stipend/ fellowship; unknown, other); source of third-party funding (e.g. BMBF Horizon 2020 project); third-party funding ends with employment; source of stipend/ fellowship; amount of contracts as a postdoc at the Leibniz Institute prior to the current contract; worked outside of academia after completing Master or Diplom; worked outside academia after Master before doctorate/ during doctorate/ after doctorate; months outside academia before/ during, after doctorate; international experience before starting phd/ during phd/ after phd; months of international experience; know about WissZeitVG; current contract is based von WissZeitVG; institute informed about time left on a fixed-term contract; time left to work on a fixed-term contract; time left to work on a fixed-term contract in months.

Contract: Finances: current pay scale; personal average monthly net income; number of days of vacation in the current contract; current pay scale level; experiences considered in pay; informed about own pay scale level; informed of reason for pay scale level.

Contract: working time: full-time or part-time contract; percent of part-time contract; average actual weekly work hours; average weekly work hours from home; how often overtime on Weekends; number of days off in 2019; share of contractual working time spend for the following tasks: research, teaching and supervision, service, administrative tasks and other tasks (in percent), kind of leadership position; personnel responsibility for student assistants, interns, doctoral researchers, postdoctoral researchers and non-scientific staff (number of people for official and unofficial responsibility).

Reconciliation of work and private life: satisfaction with work life balance; kind of support offered by the institute regarding work life balance (e.g. flexible working hours, part time work models, etc.); used kind of support.

3. Career goals and development: habilitation intention; year of habilitation start; year of future habilitation start; reason against habilitation; expected year to complete habilitation / year of completion; attractiveness of different career options (e.g. University professorship); how actively pursuing these career options; agreement with different statements on career (knowing criteria for a career at one’s institute, knowing criteria for an academic career, knowing criteria for a career outside academia, feeling prepared for a career at one’s institute, feeling prepared for an academic career, feeling prepared for a career outside of academia); ever considered to continue a career outside of academia; time when considered a non-academic career; reasons for leaving academia (e.g. higher predictability of non-academic career paths, specific job offer; etc.).

Career development: experience in different fields during the time as a postdoc at the current Leibniz Institute (e.g. budgeting, managerial responsibility, international project experience, etc.); number of proposals for substantial third party funds; important aspects with regard to the collaboration with the superior (feedback on work, conversations about professional career and possible options, career goal setting and measurement of results, discussions about research, freedom to follow one’s own research interests, connection to professional networks, other); aspects offered by superior; number of formal and informal career talks with superior; number of career talks in formal employee reviews and on informal occasions; support from the institute for different activities with or without reimbursement of expenses (e.g. attending conferences abroad with active participation, etc.); responsibility of a staff member, a unit or a team for postdoc career development at the institute; sorts of professional trainings offered at the institute or affiliated organizations ; official personal mentor for career development; official career guidelines for postdocs at the institute; promotion criteria of postdocs are clear and transparent.

4. Working situation: frequency of workload scenarios (e.g. think about work-related problems when waking up, cannot sleep at night, etc.); agreement with different statements regarding working in academia (causes me to neglect my social life, is negatively evaluated by family and friends, interferes with may partnership/ family responsibilities, is compatible with having a joint household with partner/ spouse, is compatible with care responsibilities for children or other family members);

Working environment at the institute: characterization of working environment (e.g. friendly and highly supportive working atmosphere, high rivalry between colleagues, etc.); experience of discrimination due to different aspects (age, care responsibilities, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or other aspects); help received when discriminated; scientific misconduct: co-authorship not recognized, co-authorship without contribution; provided measures to implement good scientific practice (e.g. written guidelines on good scientific practice);

Support mechanism at the institute (equal opportunity officer, PhD representative, postdoc representative, psychological counseling, workers’ council or staff council); ever reported a conflict with superior or co-worker; people or institutions contacted to report the conflict.

5. Leibniz PostDoc Network: prior knowledge about the Leibniz PostDoc Network; how learned about the Leibniz PostDoc Network.

6. International postdocs: formal support structure at the institute for international researchers (e.g. going to the residents’ registration office, clarification of residence permit, finding a place to live, etc.); needed support; language barriers at the institute; meetings generally in understood language; important information in understood language; statements with regard to learning German (institute offers language classes, funding offered for external language classes, attendance of language classes during working hours permitted, colleagues help me to learn German, do not need support for learning German, more support for learning German would be desirable).

Demography: citizenship (German, within the EU, outside the EU); native language German; sex; age (year of birth); current partnership status; household together with partner/ husband/ wife; children in main household; number of children in main household, year of birth of the youngest child; care responsibilities besides children, section of the Leibniz Association the institute belongs to; international postdoc in Germany.

Additonally coded were: respondent ID; survey date; academic age; last page of survey.