Publications

McCain, J., & Roksa, J. (2023). Beyond technical mastery: inequality in doctoral research skill development in the biological sciences. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, (ahead-of-print).
Griffin, K. A., Miller, C., & Roksa, J. (2023). Agency and career indecision among biological science graduate students. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, 14(1), 99-113.
Griffin, K. A., Stone, J., Dissassa, D. T., Hall, T. N., & Hixson, A. (2023). Surviving or flourishing: how relationships with principal investigators influence science graduate students’ wellness. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, 14(1), 47-62.
Blaney, J. M., Wofford, A. M., Jeong, S., Kang, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2022). Autonomy and privilege in doctoral education: An analysis of STEM students’ academic and professional trajectories. The Journal of Higher Education, 93(7), 1037-1063.
Zhang, F., Litson, K., & Feldon, D. F. (2022). Social predictors of doctoral student mental health and well-being. Plos one, 17(9), e0274273.
Kang, J., Baker, R., Feng, Z., Na, C., Granville, P., & Feldon, D. F. (2022). Detecting threshold concepts through Bayesian knowledge tracing: examining research skill development in biological sciences at the doctoral level. Instructional Science, 50(3), 475-497.
Blaney, J. M., Feldon, D. F., & Litson, K. (2022). Student and advisor gender identity in STEM doctoral programs: Examining longitudinal and mediating effects with latent growth models. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 59(8), 1416-1446.
Roksa, J., Wang, Y., Feldon, D. F., & Ericson, M. (2022). Who is publishing articles during graduate school? Race and gender inequalities in biological sciences over time. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 15, 47-57.
Litson, K., Feldon, D. F., & Blaney, J. (2021). Understanding the transient nature of STEM doctoral students’ research self-efficacy across time: Considering the role of gender, race, and first-generation college status. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 617060.
Litson, K., & Feldon, D. F. (2021). Considering comparability and change over time: Measurement invariance as an essential consideration in theory development and testing. In J. Huisman & M. Tight (Eds.), Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, Vol. 7 (pp. 93-111). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
Wofford, A. M., Griffin, K. A., & Roksa, J. (2021). Unequal expectations: First-generation and continuing-generation students’ anticipated relationships with doctoral advisors in STEM. Higher Education, 82(5), 1013-1029.
Wofford, A. M., & Blaney, J. M. (2021). (Re) shaping the socialization of scientific labs: Understanding women's doctoral experiences in STEM lab rotations. The Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 357-386.
Blaney, J., Wofford, A., Kang, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2020). Mentoring relationships between doctoral students and postdocs in the lab sciences. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, 11(3), 263-279.
Jeong, S., Litson, K., Blaney, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2020). Shifting gears: Characteristics and consequences of latent class transitions in doctoral socialization. Research in Higher Education, 61, 1027-1053. [2021 Outstanding Publication Award, AERA Graduate Education across the Disciplines SIG]
Maher, M., Wofford, A., Roksa, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2020). Exploring early exits: Doctoral attrition in the biomedical sciences. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, & Practice, 22, 205-226
Maher, M., Wofford, A., Roksa, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2020). Finding a fit: Biological science doctoral students’ selection of a principal investigator and research laboratory. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(3), ar31.
Feldon, D. F., Franco, J., & Jeong, S. (2020). Education and STEM. In P. Ward, J. M. Schraagen, Gore, J., & E. Roth (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Expertise: Research & Application. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Feldon, D. F. (2019). Implications of measurement issues for advancing the socialization framework. In L. DeAngelo & J. C. Weidman (Eds.), Socialization in higher education and the early career: Theory, research and application. New York: Springer International Publishing AG.
Feldon, D. F., Litson, K., Jeong, S., Blaney, J., Kang, J., Miller, C., Griffin, & Roksa, J. (2019). Postdocs’ lab engagement predicts trajectories of Ph.D. students’ skill development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jeong, S., Blaney, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Identifying faculty and peer interaction patterns of first-year biology doctoral students: A latent class analysis. CBE—Life Sciences Education.
Jeong, S., Litson, K., Blaney, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Shifting gears: Characteristics and consequences of latent class transitions in doctoral socialization. Research in Higher Education.
Maher, M., Wofford, A., Roksa, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Doctoral student experiences in biological sciences laboratory rotations. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education.
Maher, M., Wofford, A., Roksa, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Exploring early exits: Doctoral attrition in the biomedical sciences. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, & Practice.
Miller, C., & Roksa, J. (2019). Balancing research and service in academia: Gender, race, and laboratory tasks. Gender and Society.

Roksa, J., Feldon, D. F., & Maher, M. (2018). First-generation students in pursuit of the Ph.D.: Comparing socialization experiences and outcomes to continuing-generation peers. Journal of Higher Education.
Roksa, J., Jeong, S., Feldon, D., & Maher, M. (2018). Revisiting the “Model Minority” stereotype: API students’ socialization experiences and research productivity. Research in Sociology of Education.
Roksa, J., and Miller, C. (2018). Flexibility and Exploration as Cultural Capital: Occupational Pathways after the Ph.D. American Sociological Association.
Roksa, J., Whitley, S., Wofford, A., and Feldon, D. F. (2018). Relationships with Peers and Advisors: Comparison of First-Generation and Continuing-Generation Students’ Experiences. American Educational Research Association.
Feldon, D. F., Jeong, S., Peugh, J., Roksa, J., Maahs-Fladung, C., Shenoy, A., & Oliva, M. (2017). Null effects of boot camps and short-format training for Ph.D. students in life sciences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(37), 9854-9858.
Feldon, D. F., Peugh, J., Maher, M. A., Roksa, J., & Tofel-Grehl, C. (2017). Time-to-credit gender inequities of first-year PhD students in the biological sciences. CBE-Life Sciences Education.
Feldon, D. F., Sun, V., & Rates, C. (2017). Doctoral threshold concepts in the biological sciences. International Journal of Science Education.
Feldon, D. F. (2016). The development of expertise in scientific research. In R. Scott & S. Kosslyn (Eds.), Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp.1-14). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Related Research

Feldon, D. F., Wofford, A., & Blaney, J. (2023). Ph.D. pathways to the professoriate: Affordances and constraints of institutional structures, individual agency, and social systems. In L. Perna (Ed.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (pp. 1-86). New York: Springer Cham.
Feldon, D. F., Maher, M., Roksa, J., & Peugh, J. (2016). Cumulative advantage in the skill development of STEM graduate students: A mixed methods study. American Educational Research Journal, 53, 132-161.
Gilmore, J., Maher, M, & Feldon, D. F. (2016). Prevalence, prevention, and pedagogical techniques: Academic integrity and ethical professional practice among STEM students. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of Academic Integrity (pp. 729-748). New York: Springer.
Gilmore, J. A., Vieyra, M., Timmerman, B. E., Feldon, D. F., & Maher, M. A. (2015). The relationship between undergraduate research participation and subsequent research performance of early career STEM graduate students. The Journal of Higher Education, 86, 834-863.
Feldon, D. F., Maher, M. A., Hurst, M., & Timmerman, B. (2015). Faculty mentors’, graduate students’, and performance-based assessments of students’ research skill development. American Educational Research Journal, 52, 334-370.
Gilmore, J., Maher, M., Lewis, D., Feldon, D., & Timmerman, B. (2015). Feeding two birds with one scone? The relationship between teaching and research for graduate students across the disciplines. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 27(1), 25-41.
Maher, M. A., Gilmore, J. A., Feldon, D. F., & Davis, T. E. (2014). Connected or conflicted? Doctoral students’ evolving perceptions of the teaching-research relationship. Journal of School Public Relations, 35, 402-425.
Gilmore, J., Maher, M., Feldon, D., & Timmerman, B. (2014). Exploration of factors related to the development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduate teaching assistants’ teaching orientations. Studies in Higher Education, 39, 1910-1928.
Maher, M. A., Feldon, D. F., Timmerman, B., & Chao, J. (2014). Faculty perceptions of common challenges encountered by novice doctoral writers. Higher Education Research & Development, 33, 699-711.
Maher, M. A., Timmerman, B. E., Feldon, D. F., & Strickland, D. (2013). Factors affecting the occurrence of faculty-doctoral student coauthorship. The Journal of Higher Education, 84, 121-143.
Timmerman, B., Feldon, D. F., Maher, M., Strickland, D., & Gilmore, J. A. (2013). Performance-based assessment of graduate student research skills: Timing, trajectory, and potential thresholds. Studies in Higher Education, 38, 693-710.
Maher, M. A., Gilmore, J. A., Feldon, D. F., & Davis, T. E. (2013). Cognitive apprenticeship and the supervision of science and engineering research assistants. Journal of Research Practice, 9, Article M5.
Feldon, D. F., Peugh, J., Timmerman, B. E., Maher, M. A., Hurst, M., Strickland, D., Gilmore, J. A., & Stiegelmeyer, C. (2011). Graduate students’ teaching experiences improve their methodological research skills. Science, 333(6045), 1037-1039.
Feldon, D. F., Maher, M., & Timmerman, B. (2010). Performance-based data in the study of STEM graduate education. Science, 329, 282-283.
Gilmore, J., Strickland, D., Timmerman, B., Maher, M., & Feldon, D. F. (2010). Weeds in the flower garden: An exploration of plagiarism in graduate students' research proposals and its connection to enculturation, ESL, and contextual factors. International Journal of Educational Integrity, 6, 13-28.
Wofford, A. M., & Blaney, J. M. (2021). (Re)Shaping the Socialization of Scientific Labs: Understanding Women's Doctoral Experiences in STEM Lab Rotations. The Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 357–386.
Wofford, A. M., Griffin, K. A., & Roksa, J. (2021). Unequal expectations: First-generation and continuing-generation students’ anticipated relationships with doctoral advisors in STEM. Higher Education

Presentations

Blaney, J. M., Wofford, A. M., Jeong, S., Kang, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2020). How STEM doctoral students make meaning of their academic and professional trajectories: A narrative analysis. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
Blaney, J., Kang, J., Wofford, A., & Feldon, D. F. (2020). “My mental support and my scientific support”: Mentoring relationships between STEM doctoral students and postdocs. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
Feldon, D. F., Blaney, J., & Litson, K. (2020). Contribution vs. recognition: The tenuous role of postdocs in Ph.D. training. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
Blaney, J., Litson, K., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Deconstructing the role of advisor gender in developing STEM students: A longitudinal study of doctoral students in biology. 44th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Feldon, D. F (2019). Broadening participation in computing: Putting our work in context (Invited panelist). SIGCSE 2019.
Feldon, D. F. (2019). The butler didn’t do it: Looking beyond the usual suspects in understanding doctoral success (Keynote presentation). Doctoral Education, Assessment, & Learning Conference.
Feldon, D. F. (2019). Trajectories of student development in the biological sciences: Implications for theory and method (Invited presentation). CRESST Distinguished Lecture Series at UCLA.
Jeong, S., Blaney, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Identifying faculty and peer interaction patterns in doctoral students: A latent class analysis. 2019 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.
Jeong, S., Litson, K., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Role of doctoral training environments in scholarly productivity: Moderation from sense of belonging and research self-efficacy. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
Litson, K., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Controlling for state variability in performance-based measures of Ph.D. research skill development. 2019 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.
Litson, K., & Feldon, D. F. (2019). Divergent patterns of doctoral skill development across time. 44th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Feldon, D. F. (2018). Desperately seeking socialization. Invited presentation to the University of Pennsylvania Center for Learning Analytics. Philadelphia, PA: July 9. 2018.
Feldon, D. F. (2018). The butler didn’t do it: Looking beyond the usual suspects in understanding doctoral success. Invited presentation to the Council of Graduate Schools Research & Policy Forum. Washington, DC: June 27, 2018.
Jeong, S., & Feldon, D. F. (2018). Profiling students’ faculty and peer interactions during the first three years of doctoral study: Associations with student demographics, sense of belonging, and research productivity. 43rd annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Jeong, S., Feldon, D. F., Maher, M., & Peugh, J. (2018). Doctoral students’ faculty and peer interaction patterns: Relationships to researcher self-efficacy and skill acquisition. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY: April, 2018.
Jeong, S., Maher, M., Feldon, D. F., & Peugh, J. (2018). Doctoral satisfaction with faculty advisors: Advisement characteristics and relationship to socialization outcomes. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY: April, 2018.
Maher, M., Feldon, D. F., Roksa, J., & Wofford, A. (2018). Making a match: Doctoral students’ experiences with laboratory rotations and permanent advisor selection processes. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY: April, 2018.
Roksa, J., Whitley, S., Wofford, A., Feldon, D. F., & Maher, M. (2018). Friendly relations but limited opportunities: Experiences of first-generation and continuing-generation doctoral students. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY: April, 2018.
Feldon, D. F. (2017). Panelist: National Academies’ Committee on Revitalizing Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: November 7, 2017.
Feldon, D. F. (2017). Skills, motivation, and structure (Panelist). National Academies’ Committee on Revitalizing Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century.
Feldon, D. F., Jeong, S., & Peugh, J. (2017). Progressions of research skill development in the biological sciences. Paper presented at the 15th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education. Honolulu, HI: January 6, 2017.
Feldon, D. F., Jeong, S., Roksa, J., & Peugh, J. (2017). What I did on my summer vacation: Limited impacts of boot camps and summer bridge activities. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Antonio, TX: April, 2017.
Roksa, J., Jeong, S., Feldon, D., & Maher, M. (2017). Revisiting the “Model Minority” stereotype: API students’ socialization experiences and research productivity. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Houston, TX: November, 2017.
Wofford, A. M., Maher, M. A., Roksa, J., & Feldon, D. F. (2017). The early emergence of doctoral student attrition: Perspectives on early departure in the biomedical sciences. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Antonio, TX: April, 2017.
Feldon, D. F. (2016). Applying research data to research training. Invited presentation to the National Science Foundation EHR Division of Graduate Education Open House, Inventing the way forward: Graduate education for the STEM workforce. Washington, DC: September 19, 2016.
Feldon, D. F. (2016). Applying research data to research training. Invited keynote to the graduate faculty of the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. Los Angeles, CA: January 8, 2016. Feldon, D. F. (2016). Hard data on graduate STEM education (Invited presentation). Utah State University Graduate Council.
Feldon, D. F., Peugh, J., Sun, C., Maher, M. A., & Roksa, J. (2016). Gender inequality in supervised research time: A national study of Ph.D. Students in biological sciences. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Washington, DC: April 8-12, 2016.
Maher, M., Say, B., & Feldon, D. F. (2015). Faculty advisers as learners and teachers of disciplinary writing. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL: April 16, 2015.
Rates, C., & Feldon, D. F. (2015). Doctoral biology training and proposed threshold concepts. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Chicago, IL: April 14, 2015.
Rates, C., & Feldon, D. F. (2015). Research skills as threshold concepts in biology graduate education. Paper presented at the 2015 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy. Blacksburg, VA: February 5, 2015.
Urquhart, S., Maher, M., Feldon, D. F., Gilmore, J., & Timmerman, B. (2015). Lifting the lid on the black box: Primary literature engagement in graduate research skill development. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL: April 16, 2015.
Feldon, D. F., Maher, M. A., Roksa, J., & Peugh, J. (2014). The Matthew effect in STEM Ph.D. programs: A mixed-method study. Paper presented at the 2014 meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Philadelphia, PA: April 7, 2014.
Maher, M., Gilmore, J. A., Feldon, D. F., & Davis, T. (2014). Doctoral student mentoring and the role of cognitive apprenticeship. Paper presented at the 2014 meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Philadelphia, PA: April 6, 2014.
Rates, C., & Feldon, D. F. (2014). Threshold concepts within doctoral biology programs. Paper presented at the 2014 meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Philadelphia, PA: April 3, 2014.

Press

University of Maryland CHSE: Hill, A. (2018, June 28). UMD researcher awarded NSF grant to study early career researchers' workforce preparation.
Utah State University CEHS News Archive: Havertz, M. (2018, June 22). Traditions of learning: Connecting Native American heritage to STEM.
Michigan State University: Michigan State (2018, January 25). Special presentation: Dr. David Feldon.
Utah State University ITLS News Blog: Havertz, M. (2017, August 2). Dr. David Feldon published research on 'null effects of boot camps' for new doctoral students.
Utah State Today: Lyon, J. (2014, September 18). $1.15 million USU study examines graduate student retention.