Combining curriculum vitae and bibliometric analysis: mobility, gender and research performance

This paper demonstrates the benefits of combining curriculum vitae studies with advanced bibliometrics. Based on data from 326 CVs within one broad medical subject area we perform a cluster analysis of CV data. Data reduction produces four different groups of scientists: 1) mobile, 2) immobile, 3) excellent and 4) entrepreneurial. While it is clear that the most mobile and the least mobile researchers represent opposites also in citation performance we should acknowledge that for the large majority, with a low and medium mobility, there is no linear pattern of performance. The paper points at a double process where there are on the one hand selection processes at universities picking out 'the winners' and on the other hand self selection processes where researchers enhance their own performance by being mobile.