Domestic researchers with longer careers generate higher average citation impact but it does not increase over time

Nabeil Maflahi,Mike Thelwall

doi:10.1162/qss_a_00132

Abstract

Abstract Information about the relative strengths of scholars is needed for the efficient running of knowledge systems. Because academic research requires many skills, more experienced researchers might produce better research and attract more citations. This article assesses career citation impact changes 2001–2016 for domestic researchers (definition: first and last Scopus journal article in the same country) from the 12 nations with most Scopus documents. Careers are analyzed longitudinally, so that changes are not due to personnel evolution, such as researchers leaving or entering a country. The results show that long-term domestic researchers do not tend to improve their citation impact over time but tend to achieve their average citation impact by their first or second Scopus journal article. In some countries, this citation impact subsequently declines. These longer-term domestic researchers have higher citation impact than the national average in all countries, however, whereas scholars publishing only one journal article have substantially lower citation impact in all countries. The results are consistent with an efficiently functioning researcher selection system but cast slight doubt on the long-term citation impact potential of long-term domestic researchers. Research and funding policies may need to accommodate these patterns when citation impact is a relevant indicator.

Highlights

Knowledge production is central to modern economies and academic research is an important part of this
It is important to ensure that human resources within universities are managed effectively, using each person’s strengths to produce the highest quality research. This need has led to extensive research into academic careers, from the perspectives of institutional management and personal development (Laudel & Gläser, 2008; Sauermann & Stephan, 2013)
A researcher who had one journal article published in Scopus, but many publications not indexed by Scopus, would be treated as having written one Scopus journal article and nothing else

Summary

Introduction

Knowledge production is central to modern economies and academic research is an important part of this. It is important to ensure that human resources within universities are managed effectively, using each person’s strengths to produce the highest quality research. This need has led to extensive research into academic careers, from the perspectives of institutional management and personal development (Laudel & Gläser, 2008; Sauermann & Stephan, 2013). Prior research into scientific careers has tended to focus on definitions, typologies, phases, and key decision-making stages (Cañibano et al, 2019). These investigations have been typically small scale, focused on a single country and often a single field. Field changes are relatively common for physicists, but less common for those attracting many citations to their work (Zeng, Shen et al, 2019), and are common in computer science (Chakraborty, Tammana et al, 2015)

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