New wine in old bottles? Examining institutional hierarchy in laureate mobility networks, 1900–2017

Abstract

One of the major trends in academia today is the constant growth of the mobility of scientists. However, the unbalanced mobility of scientific elites can not only lead to institutional hierarchy in research sectors but also result in an “elite circulation” phenomenon. In this study, we collected the information on the institutional mobility of 10,918 laureates of 308 international academic awards, and constructed laureate mobility networks. Furthermore, we examined the structure of these networks by using several statistical approaches. We find that there are hierarchical structures in laureate mobility networks, both in different scientific fields and at different historical periods, indicating that only a few institutions link a higher number of laureates and most institutions at a lower number. In addition, the Gini coefficient shows a higher level of institutional inequality in laureate mobility networks over time.