In this presentation, the global academic profession is explored through a study of digital traces left in publications. A large-scale, generational, and longitudinal approach to academic careers is tested. We discuss how to examine 4.3 million nonoccasional scientists from 38 OECD countries publishing in 1990–2021. Our interest is in the changing global distribution of young male and female scientists over time and across disciplines. The usefulness of global bibliometric data sources (termed structured Big Data) in analyzing scientists and scholars is explored. Our focus is on four dimensions: gender, age, discipline, and time. Traditional aggregated data (e.g., UNESCO, OECD, Eurostat) are unable to show a much nuanced picture of the changing gender dynamics within and across disciplines and age groups, including gender parity (50%/50%). Limitations of bibliometric datasets in studying academic careers are explored, various trade-offs are shown, and a global approach is contrasted with a national-level approach. The methodological choices and their implications are discussed, and new opportunities to study academic careers globally are explored in practice.
Registration open at: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYtfuqrqTMvEtOrWQp6YbVbrbx1vMz105hi
Biography
Professor Marek Kwiek is Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies and UNESCO Chair in Institutional Research and Higher Education Policy, AMU University of Poznan, Poland (www.cpp.amu.edu.pl). His research area is quantitative studies of science, with interests in globalization of science, global academic profession, and international research collaboration. He has published 230 papers and his recent monograph is Changing European Academics: A Comparative Study of Social Stratification, Work Patterns and Research Productivity (Routledge, 2019). His most recent invited seminars include Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Beijing and Hong Kong. He spent three years at North American universities, including the University of Virginia, UC Berkeley, National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC, and McGill University. He was also a Fulbright New Century Scholar in higher education (2007-2008) and a Professorial Visiting Fellow at the UCL Institute of Education, London (2012-2013). Currently (2022-2023), he is a Visiting Researcher at the German Center for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW), Berlin. A Principal Investigator or country Team Leader in 25 international higher education research projects. An ordinary member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) in Salzburg and Academia Europaea in London. Contact: kwiekm@amu.edu.pl. Twitter: @Marek_Kwiek.