Graduate students, professors, staff members, and even postdocs in industry and government are all doing better than most academic postdocs, the report says. Academic postdocs should be able to expect the same treatment, she added. According to the report, advisers should provide new postdocs with written outlines of their policies on authorship, ownership of ideas and data, and removing projects from the laboratory when a postdoctoral term has ended. They also should provide an annual evaluation of a postdoc's work. The first thing institutions should do, the report says, is figure out how many postdocs they employ.
Many universities have no idea, the study notes.
Then institutions should come up with appropriate classifications for postdocs, reflecting their contributions and status as apprentices. Perhaps most important, the report urges institutions to cap the postdoc experience at a total of five years. As postdocs advance in years, they should advance in status and pay, it says. And if an institution wants to retain a postdoc after the five-year limit, it should promote the person to a staff position with regular benefits, Ms. Singer added. Moreover, in the face of a tight academic job market, institutions shouldn't keep adding to the postdoc population, the report says.