Deepening our understanding of academic inbreeding effects on research information exchange and scientific output: new insights for academic based research

This paper analyzes the impact of academic inbreeding in relation to academic research, and proposes a new conceptual framework for its analysis. We find that mobility (or lack of) at the early research career stage is decisive in influencing academic behaviors and scientific productivity. Less mobile academics have more inward oriented information exchange dynamics and lower scientific productivity. The analysis also indicates that the information exchange and scientific productivity of academics that changed institutions only once do not differ substantially from that of “mobile inbred academics”. This emphasizes the need for mobility throughout scientific and academic careers and calls for policies to curtail academic inbreeding.

[1]  Hugo Horta,et al.  Holding a post-doctoral position before becoming a faculty member: does it bring benefits for the scholarly enterprise? , 2009 .

[2]  H. V. Lente,et al.  Re-thinking new knowledge production: A literature review and a research agenda , 2008 .

[3]  Louise Ackers,et al.  Moving People and Knowledge: Scientific Mobility in the European Union1 , 2005 .

[4]  David M. Hoffman.  Changing Academic Mobility Patterns and International Migration , 2009 .

[5]  Hugo Horta,et al.  On Improving the University Research Base: The Technical University of Lisbon Case in Perspective , 2008 .

[6]  W. Hagstrom.  Inputs, Outputs, and the Prestige of University Science Departments , 1971 .

[7]  International mobility among Nordic doctoral students , 1999 .

[8]  Philip G. Altbach,et al.  The Changing Academic Workplace: Comparative Perspectives , 2000 .

[9]  Hugo Horta,et al.  Academic inbreeding: exploring its characteristics and rationale in Japanese universities using a qualitative perspective , 2011 .

[10]  John H. McNeely.  Faculty inbreeding in land-grant colleges and universities , 1932 .

[11]  James A. Evans.  Industry collaboration, scientific sharing, and the dissemination of knowledge , 2010 .

[12]  Charles E. Lance,et al.  Statistical and methodological myths and urban legends : doctrine, verity, and fable in the organizational and social sciences , 2009 .

[13]  Floyd W. Reeves,et al.  The university faculty , 1933 .

[14]  Stefano Breschi,et al.  Tracing the links between science and technology: An exploratory analysis of scientists' and inventors' networks , 2010 .

[15]  Elizabeth A. Corley,et al.  Scientists' collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital , 2004 .

[16]  Marian Williams,et al.  Graduate Education in the United States , 1961 .

[17]  Walter Crosby Eells,et al.  The Effects of Inbreeding , 1935 .

[18]  Erin Leahey,et al.  Gendered Academic Careers: Specializing for Success? , 2008 .

[19]  J. Krosnick,et al.  Survey research. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[20]  M. F. Fox.  Gender, Family Characteristics, and Publication Productivity among Scientists , 2005 .

[21]  W. Cummings,et al.  Changing Governance and Management in Higher Education: The Perspectives of the Academy , 2011 .

[22]  William B. Walstad,et al.  Views of Teaching and Research in Economics and Other Disciplines , 2005 .

[23]  Reconstructing the University: Worldwide Shifts in Academia in the 20th Century , 2007 .

[24]  Ivar Bleiklie,et al.  Modernizing Research Training-Education and Science Policy Between Profession, Discipline and Academic Institution , 2004 .

[25]  Rosemary Deem,et al.  Transforming Higher Education in Whose Image? Exploring the Concept of the ‘World-Class’ University in Europe and Asia , 2008 .

[26]  Claire Wallace,et al.  International Labour Mobility and Uneven Regional Development in Europe , 2004 .

[27]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  Academic careers, patents, and productivity: industry experience as scientific and technical human capital , 2005 .

[28]  Hugo Horta,et al.  Navel Gazing: Academic Inbreeding and Scientific Productivity , 2010, Manag. Sci..

[29]  Russel L. Thompson,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Response Rates in Web- or Internet-Based Surveys , 2000 .

[30]  P. Altbach.  The decline of the guru : the academic profession in developing and middle-income countries , 2002 .

[31]  P. Shapira,et al.  Organizational and institutional influences on creativity in scientific research , 2009 .

[32]  Anna Smolentseva,et al.  Challenges to the Russian academic profession , 2003 .

[33]  Laura B. Cardinal,et al.  The allocation of prestigious positions in organizational science: accumulative advantage, sponsored mobility, and contest mobility , 2005 .

[34]  Manuel Soler,et al.  How inbreeding affects productivity in Europe , 2001, Nature.

[35]  N. Dillon.  The postdoctoral system under the spotlight , 2003, EMBO reports.

[36]  Lowell L. Hargens,et al.  An Examination of Recent Hypotheses About Institutional Inbreeding , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[37]  Sara Delamont,et al.  Doctoring Uncertainty: , 2001 .

[38]  J. Centra,et al.  Influences on the career accomplishments of Ph.D.'s , 1985 .

[39]  Bernard Berelson,et al.  From Graduate Education in the United States , 1961 .

[40]  J. Wergin.  Analyzing Faculty Workload , 1994 .

[41]  Colin F. Camerer,et al.  The economic efficiency of corporate culture , 1988 .

[42]  P. Boardman,et al.  University researchers working with private companies , 2009 .

[43]  William K. Cummings,et al.  Changing Governance and Management in Higher Education , 2011 .

[44]  Clifton F. Conrad,et al.  Institutional Inbreeding Reexamined , 1984 .

[45]  Onur Tuncer,et al.  The effect of academic inbreeding on scientific effectiveness , 2011, Scientometrics.

[46]  Paula E. Stephan,et al.  The Increased Frequency and Duration of the Postdoctorate Career Stage , 2005 .

[47]  P. Boardman,et al.  Influencing scientists’ collaboration and productivity patterns through new institutions: University research centers and scientific and technical human capital☆ , 2010 .

[48]  Svein Kyvik,et al.  Changing trends in publishing behaviour among university faculty, 1980-2000 , 2003, Scientometrics.

[49]  M. Wright,et al.  Funding incentives, collaborative dynamics and scientific productivity : Evidence from the EU framework program , 2009 .

[50]  A. B. Hollingshead.  Ingroup Membership and Academic Selection , 1938 .

[51]  Jonathan M. File,et al.  Reviews of National Policies for Education. Tertiary Education in Portugal , 2007 .

[52]  P. Altbach.  The Decline of the Guru , 2003 .

[53]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Scientists in Organizations , 1968 .

[54]  Arcadio Navarro,et al.  High rate of inbreeding in Spanish universities , 2001, Nature.

[55]  David Chan,et al.  So Why Ask Me? Are Self-Report Data Really That Bad? , 2009 .

[56]  Stephen M. Jordan.  What we have learned about faculty workload: The best evidence , 1994 .

[57]  Bernard C. Felix,et al.  Mapping Careers and Mobility of Doctorate Holders: Draft Guidelines, Model Questionnaire and Indicators – Second Edition – the OECD/UNESCO Institute for Statistics/EUROSTAT Careers of Doctorate Holders Project , 2010 .

[58]  Reece McGee.  The Function of Institutional Inbreeding , 1960, American Journal of Sociology.

[59]  Laura Padilla.  How has Mexican faculty been trained? A national perspective and a case study , 2008 .

[60]  Jung Cheol Shin,et al.  Teaching and research nexuses across faculty career stage, ability and affiliated discipline in a South Korean research university , 2011 .

[61]  Laura Cruz-Castro,et al.  Mobility versus job stability: Assessing tenure and productivity outcomes , 2010 .

[62]  Catherine P. Ailes,et al.  Impacts of research universities on technological innovation in industry: evidence from engineering research centers , 2002 .

[63]  Atsunori Yamanoi.  The Academic Marketplace in Japan : Inbreeding, Grades and Organization at Research Universities , 2005 .

[64]  Theodore Caplow,et al.  The Academic Marketplace , 1959 .