Who’s On Board: Early Career Researchers Hold Scarce, yet Valuable Roles Within Scientific Societies

Early career researchers (ECRs) represent a large proportion of the research enterprise, yet they are largely excluded from decision-making opportunities including conference organization, funding administration, and manuscript peer review. As organizers of the research community, scientific societies are particularly well-positioned to incorporate ECRs into leadership roles. To assess the landscape of scientific societies that include ECRs within their organizational structures, we surveyed executives, tenured faculty, and ECRs in leadership positions within these structures. Of the queried scientific societies, ECR involvement in leadership varied greatly; while some ECRs participated in specialized committees, others were incorporated as full board members with decisional voting responsibilities. Both senior and ECR members reported having had positive experiences within ECR-inclusive committees, in which both scientific societies and ECRs benefited from ECR inclusion. Here, we highlight the accomplishments of several societies in incorporating ECRs in leadership positions, summarize the mutualistic benefits of including ECRs within decision-making structures, and present recommendations for establishing these positions throughout different organizations. Taken together, this work underscores the contribution of ECR leaders to scientific societies and to the research enterprise despite the relative scarcity of these positions.