A body of literature is growing tha

A body of literature is growing that discusses the place, contribution, and concerns of “early career academics”. Some of these writers draw on a deficit model (Debowski, 2006) and report that early career academics can be characterised as lacking research networks, having low credibility, as well as being poorly informed about university structure and culture. Others couch their work within a developmental framework. For example, LaRocca and Bruns (2006) highlight the challenges of moving from one profession to another and one career phase to the next. While, Laudel and Gla ¨ser (2008, p. 391) emphasise the “passage from apprentice to colleague and the corresponding transitionfromdependenttoindependent”.Thesesameco-workersalsodescribedearly career academics as “the most vulnerable group in the science system” (p. 388). This claim is supported by both anecdotal and research evidence that point to early career academics encountering high teaching loads (Lucas and Turner, 2007a), heavy scrutiny from their seniors (Baron, 2000), role overload (Debowski, 2006; Lucas and Turner, 2007b), probation, performance, and job security issues (Star, 2004), poor or limited access to resources(Bazeley,2003), and even academic isolation (Norrell and Ingoldsby, 1991).Conceivably,pressuressuchasthesecanreducetheconfidence(andself-efficacy) of early career academics and mean that their productivity in a number of areas (e.g. research and service) could be affected to such an extent that some do not produce publishable works following their initial appointment as a faculty member. By logical extension, it could be argued that some academics remain confined to an early career “space” and cannot, or find it very difficult to make the transition from apprentice to colleague or dependent to independent academic.