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The value of experience in research

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  • Hanssen, Thor-Erik Sandberg
  • Jørgensen, Finn

Abstract

This article examines how different factors influence the number of times articles in the five most recognized transportation journals are cited. The effects of most of the explanatory variables indicating the characteristics of articles, authors and journals correspond with earlier studies of citation counts. Special focus in this study is placed on estimating the relationship between researchers’ human capital or skills and their experience. For the purpose of this study, human capital is defined as a scientist's ability to conduct research at the frontier of his or her discipline and is measured by how frequently his or her research is cited. Experience is measured by counting the number of their previous scientific articles. Using negative binomial regression, we find that experience offers a statistically significant positive effect on the human capital of scientists. However, this effect diminishes rapidly with the level of experience. This suggests that young researchers relatively quickly learn the skills and gain the knowledge necessary to produce high-quality research.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanssen, Thor-Erik Sandberg & Jørgensen, Finn, 2015. "The value of experience in research," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 16-24.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:9:y:2015:i:1:p:16-24
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2014.11.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Qianjin Zong & Yafen Xie & Rongchan Tuo & Jingshi Huang & Yang Yang, 2019. "The impact of video abstract on citation counts: evidence from a retrospective cohort study of New Journal of Physics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1715-1727, June.
    2. Vincent Larivière & Rodrigo Costas, 2016. "How Many Is Too Many? On the Relationship between Research Productivity and Impact," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(9), pages 1-10, September.
    3. Thor-Erik Sandberg Hanssen & Finn Jørgensen & Berner Larsen, 2018. "The relation between the quality of research, researchers’ experience, and their academic environment," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 933-950, March.
    4. Thelwall, Mike, 2016. "The discretised lognormal and hooked power law distributions for complete citation data: Best options for modelling and regression," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 336-346.
    5. Yu, Xiaoyao & Szymanski, Boleslaw K. & Jia, Tao, 2021. "Become a better you: Correlation between the change of research direction and the change of scientific performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).

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