All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers
AbstractWithin academia, mature researchers tend to be more senior, but do they also tend to write higher impact articles? This article assesses long-term publishing (16+ years) United States (U.S.) researchers, contrasting them with shorter-term publishing researchers (1, 6, or 10 y...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The MIT Press
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Quantitative Science Studies |
| Online Access: | https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1334/96121/All-downhill-from-the-PhD-The-typical-impact |
| _version_ | 1818289022199398400 |
|---|---|
| author | Mike Thelwall Ruth Fairclough |
| author_facet | Mike Thelwall Ruth Fairclough |
| author_sort | Mike Thelwall |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
AbstractWithin academia, mature researchers tend to be more senior, but do they also tend to write higher impact articles? This article assesses long-term publishing (16+ years) United States (U.S.) researchers, contrasting them with shorter-term publishing researchers (1, 6, or 10 years). A long-term U.S. researcher is operationalized as having a first Scopus-indexed journal article in exactly 2001 and one in 2016–2019, with U.S. main affiliations in their first and last articles. Researchers publishing in large teams (11+ authors) were excluded. The average field and year normalized citation impact of long- and shorter-term U.S. researchers’ journal articles decreases over time relative to the national average, with especially large falls for the last articles published, which may be at least partly due to a decline in self-citations. In many cases researchers start by publishing above U.S. average citation impact research and end by publishing below U.S. average citation impact research. Thus, research managers should not assume that senior researchers will usually write the highest impact papers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T02:05:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7fb311eae89c44b0aa21a5bd68db4e8b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2641-3337 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T02:05:40Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | The MIT Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quantitative Science Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-7fb311eae89c44b0aa21a5bd68db4e8b2022-12-22T00:03:09ZengThe MIT PressQuantitative Science Studies2641-33372020-01-01131334134810.1162/qss_a_00072All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careersMike Thelwall0http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6065-205XRuth Fairclough1http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7145-5307Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton, UKStatistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK AbstractWithin academia, mature researchers tend to be more senior, but do they also tend to write higher impact articles? This article assesses long-term publishing (16+ years) United States (U.S.) researchers, contrasting them with shorter-term publishing researchers (1, 6, or 10 years). A long-term U.S. researcher is operationalized as having a first Scopus-indexed journal article in exactly 2001 and one in 2016–2019, with U.S. main affiliations in their first and last articles. Researchers publishing in large teams (11+ authors) were excluded. The average field and year normalized citation impact of long- and shorter-term U.S. researchers’ journal articles decreases over time relative to the national average, with especially large falls for the last articles published, which may be at least partly due to a decline in self-citations. In many cases researchers start by publishing above U.S. average citation impact research and end by publishing below U.S. average citation impact research. Thus, research managers should not assume that senior researchers will usually write the highest impact papers.https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1334/96121/All-downhill-from-the-PhD-The-typical-impact |
| spellingShingle | Mike Thelwall Ruth Fairclough All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers Quantitative Science Studies |
| title | All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers |
| title_full | All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers |
| title_fullStr | All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers |
| title_full_unstemmed | All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers |
| title_short | All downhill from the PhD? The typical impact trajectory of U.S. academic careers |
| title_sort | all downhill from the phd the typical impact trajectory of u s academic careers |
| url | https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1334/96121/All-downhill-from-the-PhD-The-typical-impact |
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