v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack AStablev2026.2

Mentoring agreement

A documented (often written) understanding between mentor and mentee setting out the goals, frequency of meetings, mode of communication, scope of mentoring, expectations on both parties, confidentiality boundaries, and review schedule for the relationship.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A one-page agreement signed by mentor and mentee specifying monthly hour-long video calls and an annual review against agreed goals

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
An unspoken expectation between two researchers who occasionally chat is not a mentoring agreement

Editorial commentary

Common in formal institutional and learned-society schemes; recommended in informal pairings to surface mismatched expectations early. Mentoring agreements are typically reviewed annually and can be ended by either party without prejudice.

References

National Academies ‘The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM’ (2019)
Vitae Researcher Development Framework

Also known as

Mentoring contract · Mentor-mentee agreement

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Mentoring agreement"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mentoring-agreement" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "Mentoring agreement",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mentoring-agreement",
  "description": "A documented (often written) understanding between mentor and mentee setting out the goals, frequency of meetings, mode of communication, scope of mentoring, expectations on both parties, confidentiality boundaries, and review schedule for the relationship.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/mentorship-training-and-career-stages/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mentoring-agreement",
  "sameAs": [
    "Mentoring contract",
    "Mentor-mentee agreement"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}

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