TABLE 4.

Themes related to impostor phenomenon among faculty in STEM

Themes	Quotes
Peer comparison	Martha: “I feel [I am] not achieving as much as my colleagues of the same rank, and that I lack sufficient training in methods as well as in other areas of academic professionalism. I feel like everyone else seems to know things that I’ve never heard of before. I have to always go out and find information for myself and then wonder if I’m performing my research methodologies correctly. I just doubt myself all the time.”
Faculty evaluation	Joanna: “The constant feedback that I got for years was you’re not doing enough. You’re not publishing enough, your teaching isn’t good enough, all of these messages, grant rejections, paper rejections. It was really difficult for me to wrap my head around what the actual contributions that I had made were.”
Public recognition	Lucy: “I did not feel like the research I got an award for is my best work, and it doesn’t seem particularly novel, either. The panel of judges weren’t really evaluating the quality of the work.”
The anticipatory fear of not knowing	Tasha: “I’m somewhat anxious about the questions I might get and whether or not I’m capable of answering them efficiently ’cause it’s spontaneous. It’s not a presentation. You never know what [questions] you’re gonna get. Those moments make me more anxious than the ones that I can prepare and practice for.”
A perceived lack of competency	Chris (concerning his selection as a faculty member): “I have strong thoughts that they made the wrong choice or only picked me because they had no other options. I’m not really sure how I got my foot in the door.”