2018#2 of the SciREX Working Papers

Authors: Hiromichi KASAGI, Naoto TAJIMA, Akira YAMAGUCHI, Yasushi HARA

Published by Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Center, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

Published date: October 1, 2018

The original in Japanese is here .

What helps to increase paper productivity?  Obtaining Ph.D. in an early stage of your life leads more production of papers? To respond to these questions, this study analyzed the relationship between the ages scientists receive Ph.D. and the number of papers produced afterwards. The result tells that even if one obtains Ph.D. in middle age, the paper productivity afterwords is high enough. This means that the age of obtaining Ph.D. does not matter as to the paper productivity afterwards. 



This research implies that the age limit set for training scientists may not be a valuable parameter to train excellent scientists. The analysis also found that experiences at more than a single university or research institution can be a valuable factor to produce excellent research results.