The effects of gender, age and academic rank on research diversification

Abstract

In this work we analyze the combined effects of gender, age and academic rank on the propensity of individual scholars to diversify their scientific activity. The aspect of research diversification is measured along three main dimensions, namely its extent and intensity and the cognitive relatedness of the fields of diversification. We apply two regression models to the dataset of scientific output of all Italian professors in the sciences over the period 2004-2008. The aim is to understand how personal and organizational traits can influence individual behaviors in terms of research diversification. Among other considerations, our findings urge caution in identifying research diversification as a co-determinant of the gender productivity gap between males and females.

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• A comparison of two approaches for measuring interdisciplinary research output: the disciplinary diversity of authors vs the disciplinary diversity of the reference list
• Gender differences in research performance within and between countries: Italy vs Norway
• Diversification versus specialization in scientific research: which strategy pays off?
• Authorship analysis of specialized vs diversified research output
• Studying the characteristics of scientific communities using individual-level bibliometrics: the case of Big Data research