The association between early career informal mentorship in academic collaborations and junior author performance

This study examines mentorship in scientific collaborations, focusing on the support junior scientists receive from senior collaborators without formal supervisory roles. Analyzing 3 million mentor-protégé pairs and a survey verifying mentorship relationships, the study finds that mentorship quality significantly predicts the scientific impact of protégés' post-mentorship publications. Interestingly, increasing the proportion of female mentors correlates with reduced post-mentorship impact for female protégés and reduced gains for female mentors. These findings challenge current diversity policies favoring same-gender mentorships and suggest that opposite-gender mentorship might enhance the impact of women in science.

Bedoor AlShebli, Kinga Makovi, Talal Rahwan