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What are the major impact factors on research performance of young doctorate holders in science in China: a USTC survey

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Abstract

Doctoral graduate research performance (DRP) is recognized as one of the most critical indices for evaluation of the success of doctoral education. Doctoral graduates with high research performance directly reflect a higher ability in academic research and academic achievement. Consequently, identifying which factors influence DRP is potentially of great value. This topic is also challenging because of difficulties in identifying the impact factors on research performance and the feasibility of the relative data collection. This paper first examines the relationships between the indicators and DRP. After a review of previous literature, the focus is on the doctoral graduates’ individual factors, advisor factors and learning performance. Data is collected from graduated doctors from the Science Schools of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Contrary to expectations, our findings indicate that, based on the Chinese context, learning performance does not appear to be strongly associated with research performance. Individual factors (status of academic origin) do have significant effect on DRP. The advisor factors (including academic status, academic experience and allocation of energy) show a relatively strong association with DRP, in terms of both the number of publications and the impact factor of Science Citation Index (SCI) cited journals.

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Notes

  1. In China, 81 scientists were first awarded Science Academician by NSFC in 1948.

  2. The award of Excellent Young Scholar began in 1994 by NSFC; its purpose is to attract overseas Chinese and foreign students to come back to the motherland.

  3. The award of Yangtze River Scholar is carried by NSFC in 1998; its purpose is to cultivate outstanding scholars and improve the quality of higher education.

  4. The full name for CNKI is China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The databases of CNKI are the largest academic journals database in China, and the greatest Chinese database in the world.

  5. The full name for Scholar OA is Scholar open access.

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Acknowledgments

In the course of this research, many teachers and officers have given us help in collecting the data of doctoral graduates’ information. Without their help, this research might have been suspended. Therefore, we would like to express our special thanks to these teachers and officers from USTC, including the President of the Graduate School and many officers from the Graduate Education Center, such as Office of Admission, Office of Education Affairs, Office of Discipline Construction, Office of Professional Degrees, Comprehensive Office, Office of Degree Authorization, and the Evaluation Center of Academic Degree and Graduate Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Jibao Gu & Yu Lin

  2. Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Doug Vogel

  3. USTC-CityU Joint Advanced Research Center, Suzhou, China

    Wen Tian

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  1. Jibao Gu
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  2. Yu Lin
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Correspondence to Yu Lin.

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Gu, J., Lin, Y., Vogel, D. et al. What are the major impact factors on research performance of young doctorate holders in science in China: a USTC survey. High Educ 62, 483–502 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9400-0

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