Recognition and weak ties: is there a positive effect of postdoctoral position on academic performance and career development?

This article analyses the effect of researchers¿ postdoctoral mobility on academic performance. positions are considered and conceptualised as a special type of researcher mobility. We the curriculum vitae of UK academic scientists as a source of information, in addition to the ISI of Knowledge and the European Patent Office. We find major differences in the patterns of between the pure and the transfer sciences. Pure scientists tend to move via a postdoctoral, whereas transfer scientists tend to change job positions. find that international postdoctoral mobility is positively correlated with publications for non-mobile pure scientists in a five-year period starting two years after completion of the PhD, and with total number of citations. The explanation is that weak institutional ties connected with postdoctoral give researchers access to institutions with higher reputation, which in turn gives access to knowledge and networks. This institutional advantage means that international postdoctoral has a positive influence on academic performance. The lack of significance of the correlation precocity and international postdoctoral mobility makes it impossible to determine whether postdoctoral mobility is a non-early advantage with positive effects on a scientist¿s and career development.