Factors Related to PhD Completion: A Systematic Scoping Review, 2020-2024

A 2020-2024 systematic scoping review of 42 studies examining factors related to PhD completion, dropout, and attrition. The review, authored by Kjersti Velde Helgøy, analyzed 6927 records from ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus to identify key factors across candidate, supervisory, and institutional categories. It is available as a 40.8 KB DOCX file under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Identify key risk factors for PhD attrition based on the review's thematic analysis of candidate characteristics.
• Design institutional interventions based on the identified categories of supervisory and institutional factors.
• Inform future research agendas based on the review's identified gaps, such as limited geographic diversity and methodological focus.

Strengths

• Systematic methodology following Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework and PRISMA-ScR reporting guidelines.
• Analysis of 42 studies published between 2020 and 2024, providing a recent synthesis of the literature.
• Clear identification of three overarching factor categories: candidate, institutional, and supervisory characteristics.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The 40.8 KB file size suggests the dataset is a document summarizing findings, not the underlying raw data.

Provenance

Source

Kjersti Velde Helgøy via figshare

Collection Method

Systematic scoping review of literature from ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus databases.

Time Range

Studies published between 2020 and 2024

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-28 04:43:20; freshness should be verified.