Disappearing Scientists. What Structured Big Data Tell Us about Leaving Science in 38 OECD Countries?

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the phenomenon of quitting academic science and show how quitting differs between men and women, academic disciplines and over time. The approach presented is comprehensive: global, based on cohorts of scientists, and longitudinal – we observe the publication activity of individual scientists over time. Using metadata from Scopus, a global bibliometric database of publications and citations, we analyze the publication careers of scientists from 38 OECD countries who began publishing in 2000 (N = 142776) and 2010 (N = 232843). The paper tests the usefulness of large bibliometric datasets for a global analysis of academic careers.