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arXiv · 1906.04619

Achieving competitive advantage in academia through early career coauthorship with top scientists

Weihua Li·Tomaso Aste·Fabio Caccioli·Giacomo Livan
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Abstract

We quantify the long term impact that the coauthorship with established top-cited scientists has on the career of junior researchers in four different scientific disciplines. Through matched pair analysis, we find that junior researchers who coauthor work with top scientists enjoy a persistent competitive advantage throughout the rest of their careers with respect to peers with similar early career profiles. Such a competitive advantage materialises as a higher probability of repeatedly coauthoring work with top-cited scientists, and, ultimately, as a higher probability of becoming one. Notably, we find that the coauthorship with a top scientist has the strongest impact on the careers of junior researchers affiliated with less prestigious institutions. As a consequence, we argue that such institutions may hold vast amounts of untapped potential, which may be realised by improving access to top scientists.

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Weihua Li, Tomaso Aste, Fabio Caccioli, Giacomo Livan. 2019-06-11. Achieving competitive advantage in academia through early career coauthorship with top scientists. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13130-4

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