Increasing trend of scientists to switch between topics.

Area of Science:

• Bibliometrics
• Scientometrics
• Research on Science

Background:

• Understanding scientist creativity across career stages is crucial for innovation.
• The dynamics of research topic switching and its impact on scientific innovation remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the topic switching dynamics of individual scientists using publication records.
• To investigate the influence of topic switching on scientific productivity and citation impact across career stages.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of publication records of individual scientists.
• Utilizing co-citing network analysis to identify distinct research topics (communities).
• Quantifying topic switching frequency and its correlation with productivity and citations.

Main Results:

• Scientists exhibit a narrow distribution in the number of research topics pursued.
• Modern researchers switch between topics more frequently compared to earlier cohorts.
• High topic switching probability in early career is linked to lower overall productivity, but higher productivity in later career.
• Average citations per paper show a negative correlation with switching probability across all career stages.

Conclusions:

• Research topic switching is a key dynamic influencing scientific innovation and career trajectories.
• The frequency and timing of topic switching have differential effects on productivity and impact.
• A model is proposed to explain the observed patterns in scientist topic switching behavior.