Honors Theses

Date of Award

Fall 12-7-2025

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Mariel Pfeifer

Second Advisor

Jason Hoeksema

Third Advisor

Alice Steimle

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

Science identity, or the extent to which an individual sees themself as a science person, is a growing area of study. Our scoping review aims to characterize the social identities that are evaluated in existing studies of doctoral students in the natural sciences. These identities include race or ethnicity, gender, religious identity, socioeconomic status, generation status, domestic versus international status, and career stage. For our scoping review, we first conducted a series of screenings in the software Covidence across hundreds of studies using PRISMA guidelines. We screened all studies using a set of inclusion criteria. After the final screening, we were left with 69 studies that underwent further extraction. In the extraction phase, we determined the identities that had been investigated across the qualifying studies. All of the qualifying studies mentioned the career stage, and a majority of the studies also reported the race or ethnicity and gender. Within these categories, we more specifically found that the experience of science identity in women, Black or African American, and Latine scientists were more reported than other identity categories. We found that socioeconomic status and religious identity were not as frequently studied in the qualifying studies compared to race and ethnicity and gender. We hope other researchers can use our work to inform future research efforts.

Download

Available for download on Sunday, February 06, 2028

Share

COinS