A study of gender and regional differences in scientific mobility and immobility among researchers identified as potentially talented

Identifying potentially talented academics worldwide using publication data has been proven to be successful with other performance measures based on citations and funding data in previous studies. In this study, we investigate the scientific mobility and immobility among academics as an additional performance measure. We reconstruct the mobility trajectory of potentially talented researchers throughout their scientific careers to study whether they have a different propensity to be mobile or non-mobile than other researchers in the group for comparison. Since the researchers’ gender may play an important role in scientific careers, we delve into gender differences. Our results indicate that potentially talented researchers have a higher propensity to be mobile than other researchers in the group for comparison – more so among male than female talented researchers. Women are overrepresented among non-mobile researchers in the other researchers group. We conclude – based on our findings – that the proposed method for identifying potentially talented individuals seems to select researchers who are more successful in their academic careers than the researchers in the group for comparison. The results agree with the findings of the previous studies based on citation and funding data. In the interpretation of our study results, one should consider yet that higher mobility is a privilege (that may be independent of talent). Specific groups, such as those with fewer caring responsibilities and visa restrictions, could have better access to this privilege. Further research is necessary thus on the trade-off between higher mobility's potential advantages and disadvantages as a strategy to build a successful academic career and unequal access to mobility.