Diversification versus specialization in scientific research: which strategy pays off?
Abstract
The current work addresses a theme previously unexplored in the literature: that of whether the results arising from research activity in fields other than the scientist's pri-mary field have greater value than the others. Operationally, the authors proceed by identifying: the scientific production of each researcher under observation; field classifi-cation of the publications; the field containing the greatest number of the researcher's publications; attribution of value of each publication. The results show that diversifica-tion at the aggregate level does not pay off, although there are some exceptions at the level of individual disciplines. The implications at policy level are notable. Since the in-centive systems of research organizations are based on the impact of scientific output, the scientists concerned could resist engaging in multidisciplinary projects.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1909.06110,
title = {Diversification versus specialization in scientific research: which strategy pays off?},
author = {Giovanni Abramo and Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo and Flavia Di Costa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.06110},
year = {2019}
}