DOI: 10.3886/e172961v1
title: Disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on marginalized and minoritized early-career academic scientists

description: <b>Project summary:</b> The CLIMBS-UP survey examined experiences of early-career scholars in economics, biology, physics, and psychology. In the paper associated with these data, we examined the differential negative impacts that marginalized early career scholars experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to more privileged groups. Participants were doctoral students (n = 2,687), postdoctoral scholars (n = 335), and assistant professors (n = 221) who completed an online survey administered in April and May 2021 (note, responses shared in the data file are only from those who completed at least 94% of the survey, there were an additional 323 respondents who did not complete the full survey). Participants were recruited from four STEM fields (biology, economics, physics, and psychology) at 124 different departments in the United States that were randomly selected and stratified by prestige based on the 2011 National Research Council S-rankings. We divided all departments in the four fields into terciles reflecting top, middle, and bottom tier rankings and randomly selected 10 departments per field/tercile. We oversampled Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to ensure at least one MSI was represented in each tier. The STATA data file contains information only for the outcome variables (COVID impacts and job outcomes) for the associated paper (Douglas, Settles, Cech, et al., under review) and does not include any identifiable demographic information other than field and career stage (COV19outcomes.dta). This project also includes a copy of the questionnaire only containing survey items used for the associated paper (COV19survey.pdf).<br><br><b>Method:</b> We asked participants to rate the amount of change they have experienced in their research progress, workload, concern about career advancement, and support from mentor(s). They were also asked about their disruptions to work due to life challenges including physical health problems, mental health problems, and additional caretaking responsibilities. We compared these impacts across seven socio-demographic statuses (ie., gender, race, caregiving status, disability status, sexual identity, first generation undergraduate status, and career stage). As the analyses use multiple demographic characteristics that can be used to identify participants, the data file here is limited to career stage, field, and all reported outcome variables including COVID-19 impacts, job satisfaction, professional role confidence, turnover intentions, and burnout. Below is a description of each variable in the downloadable Stata data file (COV19outcomes.dta).<br>
description: Response Rates: We contacted 10,653 early career researchers (doctoral students n = 8,750; postdocs n = 1,114; and assistant professors n = 789). We received a total of 3,579 responses. To be included in the analyses for this project, participants had to complete at least 94% of the survey, be from a US based institution, and report being in one of four target fields (biology, economics, physics, and psychology). The final sample included in these data is 3,243 persons (doctoral students n = 2,687; postdocs n = 335; and assistant professors n = 221).
description: Presence of Common Scales: <b>Single item measures of COVID-19 impacts:</b><br>We asked about change in research progress, workload, concern about career advancement, and support from mentors (1 = Greatly decreased to 5 = Greatly increased). We also asked whether their work was disrupted in the past year by three COVID-19 related life challenges: physical health problems (e.g., sleep problems, headaches), mental health problems (e.g., mood problems, stress), and additional caretaking responsibilities at home (1 = Did not disrupt my work at all to 5 = Disrupted my work a great deal). <br><b>Other measures: </b>Job Satisfaction, Professional Role Confidence, Turnover Intentions, Burnout Disengagement, and Burnout Exhaustion
description: web-based survey;