IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v128y2023i4d10.1007_s11192-023-04657-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research mobility to the United States: a bibliometric analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Constance Poitras

    (Université de Montréal)

  • Vincent Larivière

    (Université de Montréal
    Université du Québec À Montréal)

Abstract

This paper provides a global picture of the research mobility to the United States between 2010 and 2020 with the aim of determining whether the election of Trump acted as an influential factor on this mobility. The United States has historically been a central destination for researchers. However, many believe that the recent political climate associated with the Trump presidency affected this preeminence. To test this, we extracted a disambiguated dataset of individual researchers from the Web of Science and analyzed, for different cohorts, global mobility and mobility towards the United States. We found that for the majority of countries and groups of countries we analyzed, mobility to the United States was on the decline, particularly for the younger cohorts, while global mobility tended to increase slightly or remain stable. China, Iran and Russia are the only countries to demonstrate an increase in their mobility towards the United States. More specifically, by analyzing cohort-by-cohort mobility for a small portion of our ample (China, Iran, South Korea and Australia), we detected small drops in mobility around 2017–2018, but there is no indication that it is inclusively attributable to the isolationist policies and rhetoric of Trump.

Suggested Citation

  • Constance Poitras & Vincent Larivière, 2023. "Research mobility to the United States: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2601-2614, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:128:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-023-04657-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04657-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-023-04657-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-023-04657-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Van Noorden, 2012. "Global mobility: Science on the move," Nature, Nature, vol. 490(7420), pages 326-329, October.
    2. Teichler, Ulrich, 2015. "Academic Mobility and Migration: What We Know and What We Do Not Know," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(S1), pages 6-37, May.
    3. Ali Gazni & Cassidy R. Sugimoto & Fereshteh Didegah, 2012. "Mapping world scientific collaboration: Authors, institutions, and countries," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(2), pages 323-335, February.
    4. Ali Gazni & Cassidy R. Sugimoto & Fereshteh Didegah, 2012. "Mapping world scientific collaboration: Authors, institutions, and countries," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(2), pages 323-335, February.
    5. Marine Bernard & Bastien Bernela & Marie Ferru, 2021. "Does the geographical mobility of scientists shape their collaboration network? A panel approach of chemists’ careers," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(1), pages 79-99, February.
    6. Margarida Fontes & Pedro Videira & Teresa Calapez, 2013. "The Impact of Long-term Scientific Mobility on the Creation of Persistent Knowledge Networks," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 440-465, September.
    7. Giulio Marini & Lili Yang, 2021. "Globally Bred Chinese Talents Returning Home: An Analysis of a Reverse Brain-Drain Flagship Policy," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 541-552.
    8. Chiara Franzoni & Giuseppe Scellato & Paula Stephan, 2012. "Foreign Born Scientists: Mobility Patterns for Sixteen Countries," NBER Working Papers 18067, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Henk F. Moed & Gali Halevi, 2014. "A bibliometric approach to tracking international scientific migration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 1987-2001, December.
    10. Andrew Abbott & Mary Silles, 2016. "Determinants of International Student Migration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 621-635, May.
    11. Van Der Wende, Marijk, 2015. "International Academic Mobility: Towards a Concentration of the Minds in Europe," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(S1), pages 70-88, May.
    12. Alexander Subbotin & Samin Aref, 2021. "Brain drain and brain gain in Russia: Analyzing international migration of researchers by discipline using Scopus bibliometric data 1996–2020," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7875-7900, September.
    13. Scott, Peter, 2015. "Dynamics of Academic Mobility: Hegemonic Internationalisation or Fluid Globalisation," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(S1), pages 55-69, May.
    14. Grit Laudel, 2003. "Studying the brain drain: Can bibliometric methods help?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 57(2), pages 215-237, June.
    15. Robinson-Garcia, Nicolás & Sugimoto, Cassidy R. & Murray, Dakota & Yegros-Yegros, Alfredo & Larivière, Vincent & Costas, Rodrigo, 2019. "The many faces of mobility: Using bibliometric data to measure the movement of scientists," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 50-63.
    16. Silvia Appelt & Brigitte van Beuzekom & Fernando Galindo-Rueda & Roberto de Pinho, 2015. "Which factors influence the international mobility of research scientists?," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2015/2, OECD Publishing.
    17. Scellato, Giuseppe & Franzoni, Chiara & Stephan, Paula, 2015. "Migrant scientists and international networks," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 108-120.
    18. van der Wende, Marijk, 2015. "INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC MOBILITY: Towards a Concentration of the Minds in Europe," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt94k8h09n, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    19. Choudaha, Rahul, 2018. "A THIRD WAVE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MOBILITY: Global Competitiveness and American Higher Education," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt69b3w4d7, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    20. Caroline S. Wagner & Koen Jonkers, 2017. "Open countries have strong science," Nature, Nature, vol. 550(7674), pages 32-33, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gokhan Aykac, 2021. "The value of an overseas research trip," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(8), pages 7097-7122, August.
    2. Xinyi Zhao & Samin Aref & Emilio Zagheni & Guy Stecklov, 2022. "Return migration of German-affiliated researchers: analyzing departure and return by gender, cohort, and discipline using Scopus bibliometric data 1996–2020," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7707-7729, December.
    3. Gomez, Charles J. & Herman, Andrew C. & Parigi, Paolo, 2020. "Moving more, but closer: Mapping the growing regionalization of global scientific mobility using ORCID," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3).
    4. Aliakbar Akbaritabar & Tom Theile & Emilio Zagheni, 2023. "Global flows and rates of international migration of scholars," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-018, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    5. Xie, Qing & Zhang, Xinyuan & Kim, Giyeong & Song, Min, 2022. "Exploring the influence of coauthorship with top scientists on researchers’ affiliation, research topic, productivity, and impact," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    6. Maria Pietilä & Ida Drange & Charlotte Silander & Agnete Vabø, 2021. "Gender and Globalization of Academic Labor Markets: Research and Teaching Staff at Nordic Universities," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 69-80.
    7. Diego A Forero & Sandra Lopez-Leon & George P Patrinos, 2017. "Ten simple rules for international short-term research stays," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-5, December.
    8. Asli Ebru Şanlitürk & Samin Aref & Emilio Zagheni & Francesco C. Billari, 2022. "Homecoming after Brexit: evidence on academic migration from bibliometric data," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-019, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    9. Maki Kato & Asao Ando, 2017. "National ties of international scientific collaboration and researcher mobility found in Nature and Science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 673-694, February.
    10. Robinson-Garcia, Nicolás & Sugimoto, Cassidy R. & Murray, Dakota & Yegros-Yegros, Alfredo & Larivière, Vincent & Costas, Rodrigo, 2019. "The many faces of mobility: Using bibliometric data to measure the movement of scientists," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 50-63.
    11. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Yi Bu & Nicolás Robinson-García & Rodrigo Costas & Cassidy R. Sugimoto, 2018. "Travel bans and scientific mobility: utility of asymmetry and affinity indexes to inform science policy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(1), pages 569-590, July.
    12. Zhao, Zhenyue & Bu, Yi & Kang, Lele & Min, Chao & Bian, Yiyang & Tang, Li & Li, Jiang, 2020. "An investigation of the relationship between scientists’ mobility to/from China and their research performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    13. Ekaterina L. Dyachenko, 2016. "Internal Migration of Scientists in Russia and the USA: The Case of Applied Physics," HSE Working papers WP BRP 58/STI/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    14. Evi Sachini & Nikolaos Karampekios & Pierpaolo Brutti & Konstantinos Sioumalas-Christodoulou, 2020. "Should I stay or should I go? Using bibliometrics to identify the international mobility of highly educated Greek manpower," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 641-663, October.
    15. Rajeev K. Goel & Devrim Göktepe-Hultén, 2021. "Innovation by foreign researchers: relative influences of internal versus external human capital," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 258-276, February.
    16. Marine Bernard & Bastien Bernela & Marie Ferru, 2021. "Does the geographical mobility of scientists shape their collaboration network? A panel approach of chemists’ careers," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(1), pages 79-99, February.
    17. Raquel Carrasco & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2019. "Spatial mobility in elite academic institutions in economics: the case of Spain," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 141-172, June.
    18. Claudia Noumedem Temgoua, 2018. "Highly skilled migration and the internationalization of knowledge," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-16, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    19. A. Velez-Estevez & P. García-Sánchez & J. A. Moral-Munoz & M. J. Cobo, 2022. "Why do papers from international collaborations get more citations? A bibliometric analysis of Library and Information Science papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7517-7555, December.
    20. Baruffaldi, Stefano H. & Marino, Marianna & Visentin, Fabiana, 2020. "Money to move: The effect on researchers of an international mobility grant," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:128:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-023-04657-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.