Abstract
This work analyses the links between individual research performance and academic rank. A typical bibliometric methodology is used to study the performance of all Italian university researchers active in the hard sciences, for the period 2004–2008. The objective is to characterize the performance of the ranks of full (FPs), associate and assistant professors (APs), along various dimensions, in order to verify the existence of performance differences among the ranks in general and for single disciplines.
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Notes
Since MIUR financing composes 55.5% of the total, the share that is distributed on the basis of the VTR represents 3.9% of total income.
Standardization of citations with respect to median value rather than to the average (as frequently observed in literature) is justified by the fact that distribution of citations is highly skewed in almost all disciplines.
For life sciences, different weights are given to each co-author according to his/her position in the list and the character of the co-authorship (intra-mural or extra-mural). If first and last authors belong to the same university, 40% of citations are attributed to each of them; the remaining 20% are divided among all other authors. If the first two and last two authors belong to different universities, 30% of citations are attributed to first and last authors; 15% of citations are attributed to second and last author but one; the remaining 10% are divided among all others.
Gini coefficient is the most commonly used measure of inequality. It varies between 0, which reflects complete equality and 1, which indicates complete inequality (one person has all the measure, all others have none).
Concentration indexes represent a measure of association between two variables based on frequency data, varying around the neutral value of 1. For example, in mathematics and computer science, the value of 1.05 derives from the ratio of two percentages: full professor-top scientists over all top scientists of the UDA (39.1%), divided by full professors over total academic staff of the UDA (37.2%).
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Abramo, G., D’Angelo, C.A. & Di Costa, F. Research productivity: Are higher academic ranks more productive than lower ones?. Scientometrics 88, 915–928 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0426-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0426-6