nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2016‒03‒29
three papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Axventure AB

  1. The Mobility of Elite Life Scientists: Professional and Personal Determinants By Pierre Azoulay; Ina Ganguli; Joshua S. Graff Zivin
  2. Flipping journals to open: Rethinking publishing infrastructure By Benedikt Fecher; Gert G. Wagner
  3. Are all researchers male? Gender misattributions in citations By Michał Krawczyk

  1. By: Pierre Azoulay; Ina Ganguli; Joshua S. Graff Zivin
    Abstract: As scientists’ careers unfold, mobility can allow researchers to find environments where they are more productive and more effectively contribute to the generation of new knowledge. In this paper, we examine the determinants of mobility of elite academics within the life sciences, including individual productivity measures and for the first time, measures of the peer environment and family factors. Using a unique data set compiled from the career histories of 10,004 elite life scientists in the U.S., we paint a nuanced picture of mobility. Prolific scientists are more likely to move, but this impulse is constrained by recent NIH funding. The quality of peer environments both near and far is an additional factor that influences mobility decisions. Interestingly, we also identify a significant role for family structure. Scientists appear to be unwilling to move when their children are between the ages of 14-17, which is when US children are typically enrolled in middle school or high school. This suggests that even elite scientists find it costly to disrupt the social networks of their children and take these costs into account when making career decisions.
    JEL: J12 J62 O31
    Date: 2016–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21995&r=sog
  2. By: Benedikt Fecher; Gert G. Wagner
    Abstract: The resignation of the editorial board of an Elsevier-owned linguistics journal and its open access reorganization could get the ball rolling for other journals to follow suit. This case is a reminder that open access means more than just providing access to an article; it means rethinking the whole process of publishing. Open access also raises important questions about who owns the critical information infrastructure for online publishing.
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsw:rswwps:rswwps251&r=sog
  3. By: Michał Krawczyk (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw)
    Abstract: In this project I screen academic literature for cases of misattribution of cited author's gender. In English-language scientific publications such mistakes are found to be rare, partly because there is typically no need to attribute gender in the first place. By contrast, in master theses and doctoral dissertations (in social sciences) written in the Polish language, which typically requires gender attribution, more than 20% of female scholars are incorrectly cited as if they were men. In all my samples, mistakes involving males being cited as if they were women are dramatically less frequent, suggesting that gender misattributions are strongly shaped by the gender-science stereotype. The gender of the citing author and the field of study appear to have only limited effect.
    Keywords: citations, gender-science stereotype
    JEL: A14 B54 J16
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2016-05&r=sog

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