Gender differences in the patterns and consequences of changing research directions in scientific careers

Abstract

Changes of specialization in scientific careers is related to the so-called “essential tension” between exploration of new knowledge and exploitation of established knowledge in research and innovation. Changes of specialization are thereby assumed to influence the evolution of science in general. Research has shown that such changes may also affect the success of individual scientists in their careers. However, the gender dimension of this aspect of career development is so far understudied. There is also need for more dynamic indicators to record and interpret career developments in macro data. This study combines the gender perspective with the introduction of new indicators. We selected more than 29,000 scientists in Physics & Astronomy and studied them over six decades using a bibliographic dataset from Scopus. We find that females are less likely to change specialization than their male counterparts, and that the research performance of males is more positively affected by changing specialization. We discuss the policy implications of these findings as well as the methodological advancement related to the new indicators of career development.