Abstract
This paper uses two open science data sources—ORCID and the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (CCIHE)—to identify tenure-track and tenured professors in the United States who have changed academic affiliations. Through a series of data cleaning and processing actions, 5,938 professors met the selection criteria of professorship and mobility. Using ORCID professor profiles and the Carnegie Classification, this paper reveals patterns of academic mobility in the United States from the aspects of institution types, locations, regions, funding mechanisms of institutions, and professors’ genders. We find that professors tended to move to institutions with higher research intensity, such as those with an R1 or R2 designation in the Carnegie Classification. They also tend to move from rural institutions to urban institutions. Additionally, this paper finds that female professors are more likely to move within the same geographic region than male professors and that when they move from a less research-intensive institution to a more research-intensive one, female professors are less likely to retain their rank or attain promotion.
Highlights
IntroductionThe collective patterns of academic mobility are central to scholarly communication research
Academic moves are a vital component of academic life
This paper finds that female professors are more likely to move within the same geographic region than male professors and that when they move from a less research-intensive institution to a more research-intensive one, female professors are less likely to retain their rank or attain promotion
Summary
The collective patterns of academic mobility are central to scholarly communication research. Studies of such patterns have important implications for developing a better understanding of the higher education landscape and directly inform assessments of the scientific workforce and the scientific enterprise. There is already a vast collection of literature that analyzes academic mobility. A common approach is first analyzing bibliographic records, identifying author affiliations, and aggregating affiliations to countries. By following this approach, the current literature has revealed important facets of academic mobility, including its patterns, its determinants, and its impact on research productivity and career paths. The international mobility of researchers has exacerbated the “brain drain” effect in which well-trained researchers are more likely to cluster in places with already abundant human capital (Docquier, Marfouk, et al, 2012; Docquier & Rapoport, 2012)
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