DOI: 10.5061/dryad.1zcrjdfpn
title: Data from: Breaking Barriers? Ethnicity and socioeconomic background impact on early career progression in the fields of ecology and evolution

description: The academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and
 Mathematics (STEM) have long suffered from a lack of diversity. While in
 recent years there has been some progress in addressing the
 underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects, other characteristics that
 have the potential to impact on equality of opportunity have received less
 attention. In this study, we surveyed 188 early career scientists (ECRs),
 defined as within ten years of completing their PhD, in the fields of
 ecology, evolutionary biology, behaviour, and related disciplines. We
 examined associations between ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, sex,
 socioeconomic background, and disability, with measures of career
 progression, namely publication record, number of applications made before
 obtaining a postdoc, type of contract, and number of grant applications
 made. We also queried respondents on perceived barriers to progression,
 and potential ways of overcoming them. Our key finding was that
 socioeconomic background and ethnicity were associated with measures of
 career progression. While there was no difference in the number of
 reported first-authored papers on PhD completion, ethnic minority
 respondents reported fewer other-authored papers. In addition, ECRs from a
 lower socioeconomic background were more likely to report being in
 teaching and research positions, rather than research only positions, the
 latter being perceived as more prestigious by some institutions. We
 discuss our findings in the context of possible inequality of opportunity.
 We hope that this study will stimulate wider discussion, and help to
 inform strategies to address the underrepresentation of minority groups in
 the fields of ecology and evolution, and STEM subjects more widely.
description: These data come from an online survey which aimed to obtain
 information on the barriers to career progression faced by early career
 researchers in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, behaviour, and
 related disciplines. The survey was hosted by SurveyMonkey, Inc. (USA) and
 a link to the survey was communicated via social media and email, via
 Evolutionary Directory (EvolDir), with a simple title ‘STEM survey’. We
 specified that respondents should be early career researchers within a
 maximum of ten years of completing their PhD. We asked questions about six
 characteristics (ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, sex, socioeconomic
 background, and disability) and four measures of career progression
 (publication record, number of applications made before obtaining a
 postdoc, type of contract, and number of grant applications made). We also
 asked questions about perceived barriers to career progression. We
 received a total of 188 responses. Due to the sensitivity of the data, we
 are unable to make the full dataset of responses available. The data
 presented here are aggregated data summarising the numbers of our survey
 respondents who identified with the characteristics our study reported on,
 and whether or not these people reported barriers. The average number of
 publications (first- and other-authored combined) per group is also
 included. Note that the age group and number of publications was reported
 at the time of PhD completion. 
description: A full list of survey questions (and the format of answers) is
 provided in a ReadMe file.