The state-of-the-art of research on science research careers

This chapter provides an overview of key aspects of research on the research career. This research has evolved into a variety of ways to approach careers analytically, moving from a view of careers based on formal markers (stage-by-stage) to a view that includes experiential and horizontal dimensions of the career. The chapter starts from the current conceptualization that research careers are work lives lived through the performance of scientific research. The chapter aims to synthesize what the state-of-the-art research has to say about: how to conceive of the research career; and how to model the stages of a research career generically. In doing so, it points to several important issues, such as agency, accumulation, and critical junctures. Finally, we suggest that increased political and societal expectations about the contribution of science are manifesting themselves in claims that the structures of rewards and incentives that govern research careers need to be renewed.