The scientific workforce is considered key to the innovative capacity of modern economies and central to society's ability to solve current problems and avert future ones. For many reasons, the German academic system offers young researchers career prospects that are difficult to plan This special issue aims to understand the social mechanisms behind the career decisions, prospects and paths of university graduates within and outside academia. It sheds light on employment trajectories and monetary returns, the embedding of careers in private and professional social networks and academic recruitment processes. The articles in this special issue show the latest state of research in a dynamic field of research.

Among the several contributing autors are theINCHER members Frerk Blome, Guido Buenstorf, Ester Höhle, Anne Otto, Maria Theissen, and Oliver Wieczorek.

The Special Issue is openly accessible:

Bartsch, Simone; Buenstorf, Guido; Theissen, Maria (2023): Are Employment Trajectories of STEM Doctoral Degree Holders Gender-Specific? Evidence from a Large German Technical University. In: Christiane Gross und Steffen Jaksztat (Hg.): Career Paths Inside and Outside Academia. Soziale Welt (Sonderheft 26): Nomos, pp. 89–129.

Ester Höhle (2023): Fixed-term employment and leaving intention. An analysis of junior academics across Europe, pp. 169–206.

Wieczorek, Oliver; Schmitz, Andreas; Volle, Jonas; Khulan, Bayarkhuu; Münch, Richard (2023): Types of Collaboration and the Consolidation of Sociological Research. Evidence from publications in five German sociology journals 2000–2019, pp. 239–279.

Blome, Frerk (2023): Mechanisms of Upward Social Mobility. A qualitative analysis of class-specific careers in law and educational science, pp 372-406.