Comparing research productivity of returnee-PhDs in science, engineering, and the social sciences

Abstract

Comparing research output of foreign-trained doctorates (returnee PhDs) with those trained in the home country allows us to test effects of scientists’ mobility on research productivity, and informs policies aimed towards incentivizing return of foreign-trained scientists. This study compared research output of returnee PhDs in three fields that vary in resource-dependency (social sciences, sciences, and engineering), factoring in seniority and gender. Scientometric analysis (n = 1056) compared research outputs of returnee PhDs & home-PhDs (h-Index and citations) at three levels of seniority (assistant, associate, professor) in the three fields. The comparison suggests that on average (independent of field), research output of returnee PhDs does not exceed that of home-PhDs, however, returnee PhD research output compared to that of home-PhDs in the sciences is substantially low compared to the difference in output observed in the social sciences and engineering fields. In sciences field, returnee PhDs’ output is lower than that of home-PhD at all three academic positions, whereas in the engineering field, returnee PhDs at the starting and senior-most positions show greater research productivity than home-PhDs. In social sciences, returnee PhDs’ research output exceeds that of home-PhDs only at the senior most position. Regarding gender, the analysis shows that research output of female returnee PhDs in the engineering field, in spite of them being small in number, is higher than that of male returnee PhDs. Implications of these insights are discussed to inform policies aimed toward incentivizing return of foreign PhDs to developing countries.