Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A senior researcher providing monthly career guidance to a postdoc at a different institution through a learned-society scheme
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A doctoral supervisor in their evaluative role is functioning as a supervisor, not a mentor in the choice-based sense
Editorial commentary
Mentors may be internal (within the mentee’s institution) or external. The relationship is typically informal but increasingly formalised through institutional mentoring programmes, learned-society mentoring schemes, and funder-mandated mentoring plans. Distinct from sponsorship (which involves active advocacy).
References
- Royal Society R4RI Resume for Researchers (2020 v1, 2024 mandate)
- National Academies ‘The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM’ (2019)
Also known as
Career mentor · Research mentor
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
xml
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Mentor"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mentor" />json
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"name": "Mentor",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mentor",
"description": "An experienced researcher who provides career, intellectual, or professional guidance to a less experienced researcher (the mentee), distinct from a formal supervisor in that the mentoring relationship is typically chosen rather than assigned, may cross institutional lines, and does not carry formal evaluative authority.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/mentorship-training-and-career-stages/",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mentor",
"sameAs": [
"Career mentor",
"Research mentor"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}
