Perceived Barriers to Career Progression Among Early-Career Epidemiologists: Report of a Workshop at the 22nd World Congress of Epidemiology

Epidemiology has always been considered a key science of public health. From past to present, scientific evidence arising from high quality epidemiological studies has brought innovation to community practices to control diseases. Thus,epidemiologists have played an important role in providing high quality evidence for policy making and decisions. To control current and future occurrences of disease, it is important to consider how early-career epidemiologists can continue their careers as epidemiologists. Generally, early-career researchers face various barriers to their career progression, such as work-life imbalance, insufficient research funds, or job instability. Identifying these barriers is important when considering beneficial support for career progression. Past findings suggest area-specific barriers among early career researchers in endocrinology, genetics, and psychology. However, little is known about barriers faced by early-career epidemiologists. In August 2017, Japan Young Epidemiology Network (JapanYEN) and the International Epidemiological Association’s (IEA) Early Career Epidemiologists (ECE) Committee collaboratively arranged a workshop regarding career progression among early career epidemiologists at the IEA World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE) in Japan. The current manuscript aims to summarize the outcome of the workshop and to describe perceived barriers for early-career epidemiologists in order to determine future support