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1. Polar Early Career World Summit- Synthesis Report Early career priorities for long-term polar research planning

   Dryák-Vallies, M C; Strand, S M; Payne, M R; Schlindwein, A (September 2025, https://zenodo.org/records/16994869)

   A report on polar early career research priorities for ICARP IV and IPY-5 This report presents the synthesized priorities of polar early career community members, gathered from the Polar Early Career World Summit (PECWS) and multiple modes of online engagement before and after the event. The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) organized the summit and associated engagement opportunities, engaging 238 polar early career professionals from across the globe to shape collective priorities for the future of polar research. These perspectives are especially timely as the international community prepares for the 5th International Polar Year (IPY-5) in 2032–2033, offering an unprecedented opportunity for early career contributions to be integrated into the global polar science planning. This document represents a community-driven vision: a roadmap developed by polar early career professionals that urge the polar research community to rethink systems, value relationships, and strengthen pathways for equitable participation. It highlights not just what research should be pursued, but how can we work together to ensure polar science is impactful, responsible, 

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2. Who are EEC NSF CAREER awardees?: Educational Backgrounds, Institutional Affiliations, and Public Award Abstracts

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE43999.2019.9028505  

   Rohde, Jacqueline; Godwin, Allison; Karlin, Jennifer (October 2019, Frontiers in Education)

   This research category full paper explores National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program awardees from the Division of Engineering Education and Centers. The NSF CAREER Award distinguishes researchers as promising future leaders who are advancing the frontier of engineering education research (EER). Additionally, the multidisciplinary rise of EER has resulted in a diverse community of researchers from many backgrounds and academic departments. Given the recognition associated with the CAREER award, it is crucial that all early career faculty members possess the knowledge and support to create high quality CAREER applications. In this study, we investigated the educational backgrounds, institutional affiliation, and public abstracts of CAREER awardees to document prevailing patterns in recognition through CAREER awards. This knowledge informs future work to provide additional support for early career faculty planning on applying to the program. 

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3. Leveraging the ARIS BI Toolkit to Equip Faculty for Career—and CAREER—Success

   https://doi.org/10.54656/jces.v17i2.614  

   Bosley, Jocelyn; Dwyer, Matthew; Gilreath_Mullen, Tisha; Bohlin, Amanda; Tan, Wern Ai; Pelland, Catherine M; Iverson, Ellen R; Meier, Nathan (November 2024, Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship)

   Research development professionals at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) used the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) Broader Impacts (BI) Toolkit with early-career faculty preparing grant proposals for the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). This prestigious career-development funding mechanism places unique emphasis on the integration of research and education, positioning awardees to enhance the impact of their research programs through education initiatives like curriculum development, outreach, and community engagement. However, many early-career faculty lack experience or training to develop robust education plans that are thoughtfully aligned with and responsive to their research. With the aim of developing practical ways to help faculty gain these skills, the study team used mixed methods to analyze the integration of research and education in CAREER proposals submitted by UNL faculty. These methods included using the ARIS BI Rubric to evaluate the proposals, convening two panel review discussions, and interviewing principal investigators about their ARIS BI Toolkit use and approach to research-education integration. Case study findings reveal that while effective and impactful integration can take many forms, early-career faculty and those who support them can utilize the ARIS BI Toolkit strategically to strengthen this aspect of grant proposals, positioning faculty to write well-integrated CAREER proposals and potentially contributing to long-term grant-writing and research program success. 

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4. The untapped potential of early career researchers in academic publishing: Lessons learned from the Journal of Emerging Investigators model

   https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1470  

   Otero, Claire E.; Osinski, Victoria; Mattison, Kari A. (July 2022, Learned Publishing)

   Key points The lack of formal training in peer review can be detrimental to the publishing activities of early career researchers, including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.Lack of recognition of the work of early career researchers (ECRs) in review means that journals cannot easily identify them as potential reviewers in the future.Participation as peer‐reviewers increases understanding in early career researchers of their own writing and review process.ECRs can be highly motivated to volunteer for journal editorial work—Journal of Emerging Investigatorsencourages this by offering many different roles.Publishers that utilize and train early career researchers as peer‐reviewers can prevent poor reviewer practices. 

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5. Disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on marginalized and minoritized early-career academic scientists

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274278  

   Douglas, Hannah M.; Settles, Isis H.; Cech, Erin A.; Montgomery, Georgina M.; Nadolsky, Lexi R.; Hawkins, Arika K.; Ma, Guizhen; Davis, Tangier M.; Elliott, Kevin C.; Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence (September 2022, PLOS ONE)

   Grundy, Quinn (Ed.)

   Early research on the impact of COVID-19 on academic scientists suggests that disruptions to research, teaching, and daily work life are not experienced equally. However, this work has overwhelmingly focused on experiences of women and parents, with limited attention to the disproportionate impact on academic work by race, disability status, sexual identity, first-generation status, and academic career stage. Using a stratified random survey sample of early-career academics in four science disciplines ( N = 3,277), we investigated socio-demographic and career stage differences in the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic along seven work outcomes: changes in four work areas (research progress, workload, concern about career advancement, support from mentors) and work disruptions due to three COVID-19 related life challenges (physical health, mental health, and caretaking). Our analyses examined patterns across career stages as well as separately for doctoral students and for postdocs/assistant professors. Overall, our results indicate that scientists from marginalized (i.e., devalued) and minoritized (i.e., underrepresented) groups across early career stages reported more negative work outcomes as a result of COVID-19. However, there were notable patterns of differences depending on the socio-demographic identities examined. Those with a physical or mental disability were negatively impacted on all seven work outcomes. Women, primary caregivers, underrepresented racial minorities, sexual minorities, and first-generation scholars reported more negative experiences across several outcomes such as increased disruptions due to physical health symptoms and additional caretaking compared to more privileged counterparts. Doctoral students reported more work disruptions from life challenges than other early-career scholars, especially those related to health problems, while assistant professors reported more negative changes in areas such as decreased research progress and increased workload. These findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed work outcomes for minoritized and marginalized early-career scholars. Institutional interventions are required to address these inequalities in an effort to retain diverse cohorts in academic science. 

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