{
  "abstract": "Academic institutions privilege norms of continuous productivity and uninterrupted availability, creating conformity pressures that systematically disadvantage those who deviate from an implicit template of the ‘ideal academic’. This study explores how doctoral students and faculty in the health sciences perceive the reproduction of social homogeneity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants at a German university hospital. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis with extended idiographic engagement. Participants perceived homogeneity as reproduced through external exclusion, enacted by others through networks, normative expectations, or institutional arrangements, and self-exclusion, whereby individuals withdrew, reduced visibility, or reshaped identity in anticipation of exclusion (‘anticipatory compliance’). Across both processes, the tacit norm of the ideal academic organised access and belonging. Supportive supervision and visible role models were perceived as partial buffers but did not structurally alter underlying norms. Interpreted through the social identity threat framework, these accounts support an exploratory interpretation of a possible self-reinforcing cycle: structural homogeneity may generate identity-threatening environments that activate concealment and withdrawal, potentially concentrating homogeneity further. These findings suggest that achieving substantive inclusion requires challenging the structural conditions that naturalise presence, mobility, and availability as measures of academic success.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Gender in Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.",
    "Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.",
    "German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Partner Site Berlin/Potsdam, Berlin, Germany."
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Rieke Buckup"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jamie B Smith",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0097-6102"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Gertraud Stadler"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Pichit Buspavanich"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4413t8bmk2zh7.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0345194",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13716225",
  "id": "4413t8bmk2zh7",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345194",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Biology and Life Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Careers"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Cognitive Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Cognitive Science"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Disabilities"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Economics"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Employment"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Europe"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "European Union"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Geographical locations"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Germany"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Human Learning"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Labor Economics"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Learning"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Learning and Memory"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Medical Conditions"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Medicine and Health Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Mental Health and Psychiatry"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "People and places"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Perception"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Personality"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Psychological Stress"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Research Article"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Sensory Perception"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Social Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3600|Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Perception/Sensory perception"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Learning and memory/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Sensory perception"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Perception/Sensory perception"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Personality"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Psychological stress"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Disabilities"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Mental health and psychiatry/Psychological stress"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Geographical locations/Europe/European Union/Germany"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Economics/Labor economics/Employment/Careers"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Learning/Human learning"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Perception/Sensory perception"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Personality"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Psychological stress"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7224078736",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13716225?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13716225",
  "pmid": "42949904",
  "published": "2026-10-28",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4413t8bmk2zh7.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:17Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0345194",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345194"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:33Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42949904",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42949904"
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    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T12:23:16Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13716225",
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      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345194"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "heading:Mental Health and Psychiatry",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Perceptions of homogeneity reproduction in health sciences academia",
  "title_text": "Perceptions of homogeneity reproduction in health sciences academia",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:23:16Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4413t8bmk2zh7",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}