Mobility versus job stability: Assessing tenure and productivity outcomes

Based on the data from survey responses and publications of 1583 academic scientists in Spain, this paper examines the relationship between scientific performance and reward, considering tenure and permanent positions as key academic rewards in early phases of academic career and focusing especially on the mediating effect of mobile versus stable career paths. Although widely practiced, inbreeding has often been considered to be at odds with universalism and merit in science. Our findings indicate that inbred faculty does not get tenure with less scientific merits than PhDs from other institutions; we also find that non-mobile careers are a strong predictor of the timing of rewards in the form of early permanent positions. Our results question the assumption mainly based on US evidence that mobility enhances career. These findings must be interpreted in the context of organizational and institutional features of the Spanish academic system that promote the development of internal academic research job markets.     

Influencing scientists’ collaboration and productivity patterns through new institutions: University research centers and scientific and technical human capital

This paper analyzes the effect of university research centers on the productivity and collaboration patterns of university faculty. University research centers are an important subject for policy analysis insofar that they have become the predominant policy response to scientific and technical demands that have not been met by extant institutions, including academic departments, private firms, and government laboratories. Specifically, these centers aim to organize researchers from across the disciplines and sectors which, collectively as a research unit, possess the scientific and technical capacity relevant to scientific and technical goals of the sponsoring agencies. In this paper, we measure the productivity and collaboration patterns of university researchers affiliated with a relatively large-scale and “mature” university research center to discern the effects, if any, of the center mechanism on individual scientists and engineers. Based on an analysis of longitudinal bibliometric data, the results from this case study demonstrate affiliation with the center to be effective at enhancing overall productivity as well as at facilitating cross-discipline, cross-sector, and inter-institutional productivity and collaborations.     

中国科研人力资本补偿:问题、成因与对策

人力资本是科研活动中最宝贵的资源,科研人力资本的补偿力度深刻影响着科研人员开展科研工作的积极性与行为,乃至决定着整个国家科技创新体系的产出水平与产出质量。本文深入分析了当前中国科研人力资本补偿存在的问题与成因,科研人员工资收入低、人力资本双轨制以及重物轻人等现象的存在严重制约了中国科学研究的长期发展,而造成这些问题的原因在于保障性拨款比例过低、工资管理政策未能做到分类指导以及与时俱进、科研劳动价值尚未得到足够尊重等。本文最后提出了优化中国科研人力资本补偿体制的政策建议。