Age stratification and cohort effects in scholarly communication : a study of social sciences
Article [Accepted Manuscript]
Abstract(s)
Aging is considered to be an important factor in a scholar’s propensity to
innovate, produce, and collaborate on high quality work. Yet, empirical studies in the area
are rare and plagued with several limitations. As a result, we lack clear evidence on the
relationship between aging and scholarly communication activities and impact. To this
end, we study the complete publication profiles of more than 1000 authors across three
fields—sociology, economics, and political science—to understand the relationship
between aging, productivity, collaboration, and impact. Furthermore, we analyze multiple
operationalizations of aging, to determine which is more closely related to observable
changes in scholarly communication behavior. The study demonstrates that scholars
remain highly productive across the life-span of the career (i.e., 40 years), and that productivity increases steeply until promotion to associate professor and then remains stable.
Collaboration increases with age and has increased over time. Lastly, a scholar’s work
obtains its highest impact directly around promotion and then decreases over time. Finally,
our results suggest a statistically significant relationship between rank of the scholar and
productivity, collaboration, and impact. These results inform our understanding of the
scientific workforce and the production of science.
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