IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pcbi00/1010101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ten simple rules for succeeding as an underrepresented STEM undergraduate

Author

Listed:
  • Melanie Duc Bo Massey
  • Suchinta Arif
  • Shanukie Embuldeniya
  • Karma Nanglu
  • Joseph Bielawski

Abstract

Undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., Black, Indigenous, and people of color [BIPOC], members of the Deaf community, people with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, from low-income backgrounds, or underrepresented genders) continue to face exclusion and marginalization in higher education. In this piece, authored and edited by a diverse group of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) scholars, we present 10 simple rules for succeeding as an underrepresented STEM undergraduate student, illuminating the “hidden curriculum” of STEM specifically as it relates to the underrepresented undergraduate experience. Our rules begin by encouraging students to embrace their own distinct identities and scientific voices and explain how students can overcome challenges unique to underrepresented students throughout their undergraduate degrees. These rules are derived from a combination of our own experiences navigating our undergraduate STEM degrees and the growing body of literature on improving success for underrepresented students.

Suggested Citation

  • Melanie Duc Bo Massey & Suchinta Arif & Shanukie Embuldeniya & Karma Nanglu & Joseph Bielawski, 2022. "Ten simple rules for succeeding as an underrepresented STEM undergraduate," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(6), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pcbi00:1010101
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010101
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010101&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010101?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard B. Freeman & Wei Huang, 2014. "Collaboration: Strength in diversity," Nature, Nature, vol. 513(7518), pages 305-305, September.
    2. Freeman, Richard Barry & Huang, Wei, 2014. "Collaboration: Strength in diversity," Scholarly Articles 33496269, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Igor Linkov & Benjamin Trump & Greg Kiker, 2022. "Diversity and inclusiveness are necessary components of resilient international teams," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Junwan Liu & Xiaoyun Gong & Shuo Xu & Chenchen Huang, 2024. "Understanding the relationship between team diversity and the innovative performance in research teams using decision tree algorithms: evidence from artificial intelligence," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(12), pages 7805-7831, December.
    3. Jielan Ding & Zhesi Shen & Per Ahlgren & Tobias Jeppsson & David Minguillo & Johan Lyhagen, 2021. "The link between ethnic diversity and scientific impact: the mediating effect of novelty and audience diversity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7759-7810, September.
    4. Liu, Junwan & Guo, Xiaofei & Xu, Shuo & Song, Yinglu & Ding, Kaiyue, 2023. "A new interpretation of scientific collaboration patterns from the perspective of symbiosis: An investigation for long-term collaboration in publications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    5. Haeussler, Carolin & Sauermann, Henry, 2020. "Division of labor in collaborative knowledge production: The role of team size and interdisciplinarity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(6).
    6. Wei Cheng & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2021. "Marginalized and Overlooked? Minoritized Groups and the Adoption of New Scientific Ideas," NBER Working Papers 29179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Xu, Dafeng, 2017. "Acculturational homophily," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 29-42.
    8. Jennifer C. Davis & Eric Ping Hung Li & Mary Stewart Butterfield & Gino A. DiLabio & Nithi Santhagunam & Barbara Marcolin, 2022. "Are we failing female and racialized academics? A Canadian national survey examining the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on tenure and tenure‐track faculty," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 703-722, May.
    9. Renli Wu & Christopher Esposito & James Evans, 2024. "China's Rising Leadership in Global Science," Papers 2406.05917, arXiv.org.
    10. Yan Wang & Zhihua Liu, 2023. "Research on the Regional Cooperation Innovation Network of Universities in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Great Bay Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, June.
    11. Chih-Hsing Liu & Jun-You Lin, 2024. "Collaboration-based scientific productivity: evidence from Nobel laureates," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 3735-3768, July.
    12. Nane, Gabriela F. & Larivière, Vincent & Costas, Rodrigo, 2017. "Predicting the age of researchers using bibliometric data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 713-729.
    13. Qingnan Xie & Richard B. Freeman, 2019. "Bigger Than You Thought: China's Contribution to Scientific Publications and Its Impact on the Global Economy," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 27(1), pages 1-27, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pcbi00:1010101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ploscompbiol (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.