Mentoring practices, developmental networks, and doctoral science training experiences

The realization that mentoring during doctoral science training is provided by a variety of actors beyond the traditional doctoral adviser/mentor led us to empirically verify, using confirmatory factor analysis and normal error regression analysis, whether developmental networks (DNs) assist in enriching the doctoral training experiences of those who aspire to be scientists (i.e., doctoral science students). We analyzed data from face-to-face interviews we conducted with 115 chemical science doctoral students at selected elite universities in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. We schematized a measure of DN types from an egocentric name-generator. That measure was based on diversity of alters' sector of science (i.e., academia, government, industry) and tie strength. Despite the salience of the doctoral mentor and the recognition of DNs in providing support to students in Western training systems, we observed that the doctoral mentor remains to be the central influential actor in doctoral students’ training experiences in the non-West. In contrast to studies on Western scientific training systems, our results suggest that the contribution, influence, salience, and role of doctoral mentors and DNs in the training experiences of doctoral students are shaped by the larger sociocultural context in which scientific training systems are embedded.