Scientists Are Leaving Academia at Unprecedented Rates

A recent global study reveals that a significant number of scientists are stepping away from academia within a decade of starting their research careers, raising concerns about the long-term retention of scientific talent. Published in Higher Education, the research tracked nearly 400,000 scientists across 38 countries using data from the Scopus citation database, providing a detailed look at publishing trends as an indicator of active research participation.

The study found that around one-third of researchers stop publishing within five years of their first paper, and nearly half have left science by the ten-year mark. This large-scale analysis, led by Marek Kwiek from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland, sheds light on a global trend that, until now, had been poorly quantified. “We’ve long known that scientists leave academia, but this study shows just how widespread the issue is,” Kwiek said.

Joya Misra, a sociologist from the University of Massachusetts Amherst who focuses on academic inequality, stressed that the findings are a wake-up call. “This study gives us concrete numbers that make it clear there’s a serious retention problem in science,” she explained.

The research followed two distinct groups of scientists: those who began their publishing careers in 2000 and those who started in 2010. In the 2000 cohort, one-third of scientists had already stopped publishing within five years, and by 2019, only about 34% of men and 29% of women were still publishing. The 2010 group showed a slight improvement, with around 42% of both men and women still actively publishing after nine years, suggesting some progress in retaining researchers.

However, significant disparities remain, particularly between genders and across disciplines. Women were generally more likely to exit the research field than men, especially in life sciences. In biology, for instance, 58% of women had left science within ten years, compared to 49% of men. On the other hand, in fields such as physics, engineering, and computer science—where women are often underrepresented—there was little difference between the dropout rates of men and women.

Misra pointed out that these figures may not fully reflect the gender gap in science. “There’s still a bias in how contributions are credited, and women’s roles in collaborative projects might be underrecognized,” she noted. The study doesn’t address why so many scientists leave academia, but potential reasons include a shift toward non-research roles, industry jobs, or administrative positions, as well as personal factors like family commitments and salary concerns.

Previous research by Damani White-Lewis, an expert in academic careers at the University of Pennsylvania, found that family obligations, tenure pressures, and salary dissatisfaction were major reasons why U.S. faculty members left academia. He welcomed the study’s findings but emphasized that more detailed research is needed to understand the motivations behind these departures. “Knowing where the gaps are is the first step toward fixing them,” White-Lewis said.

Kwiek plans to follow up with large-scale surveys and AI-driven interviews to dig deeper into the reasons behind this scientific exodus. Both Misra and White-Lewis agree that understanding why researchers leave is key to developing strategies to retain talent in academia. As White-Lewis put it, “If we want to keep people in science, we need to understand why they’re leaving.”

References:

Kwiek, M., & Misra, J. (2024). Why nearly half of scientists leave academia by their tenth year. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03222-7