What do early career researchers value in academic jobs? Evidence from a mixed-methods study in the UK

When making academic job choices, early career researchers (ECRs) must balance intrinsic motivations, such as research interest and autonomy, with extrinsic factors including job security, salary, and locations. Understanding these trade-offs is essential to design effective policies which reduce precarity in academic careers. Here, we report a mixed-methods study undertaken to develop a discrete choice experiment (DCE) on academic job preferences in the UK. The study comprised five phases: a scoping review (104 studies), focus groups and interviews with ECRs (n = 10), expert consultations (n = 4), an online structured prioritisation exercise (n = 134), and iterative think-aloud pre-tests (n = 13). The resulting DCE included seven attributes: autonomy, contract length, development opportunities, location, research culture, research interest, and salary. Attribute importance varied by gender, caring responsibilities, visa status, and career stage. The study provides a transparent framework for designing preference elicitation tools and offers policy-relevant insights into how ECRs evaluate academic employment conditions.