Peacock or Plum? Reflections on academic research career pathways Julie S. Taylor a, * , E. Jane Cantrell b a School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, 11 Airlie Place, Dundee DD1 4HJ, United Kingdom b NHS Education for Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Accepted 13 December 2005 Summary Purpose of the paper: This paper critically deconstructs academic career pathways in research and explores possible future directions. Background and context: Development in NHS policy and practice has brought about something of a sea change in academic career pathways in nursing and midwifery. Whilst once there was a fairly prescribed route into nurse education and then research, contemporary factors no longer foster such traditional routes. Methods: In examining what a career pathway into academic nursing research may look like it may be useful first to delineate what are the basic assumptions that con- stitute ‘achievement’ within such a career. Once pinpointed it is possible to map out different pathways that illustrate the diversity with which this has occurred. This provides a useful mirror for examining what may or may not be useful for the future. This paper explores three areas of the nurse academic career pathway: introspec- tively to understand where we are at the moment, retrospectively by examining composite research careers in order to gain insight for the final prospective section, where we make recommendations for the future. Conclusions: Nurses and midwives working in higher education require transparent and sustainable research strategies that facilitate clear research pathways in acade- mia. The tensions between research and teaching are inevitable, but are manage- able if workforce development uses individuals to their strengths and values diversity of contribution.  c 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KEYWORDS Academic career pathways; Workforce development; Education; Research strategy; RAE Introduction The career opportunities afforded nurses and mid- wives are now more diverse and (contentiously 0260-6917/$ - see front matter  c 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2005.12.005 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1382 348532; fax: +44 1382 348533. E-mail address: j.z.taylor@dundee.ac.uk (J.S. Taylor). Nurse Education Today (2006) 26, 449–456 intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/nedt Nurse Education Today