What Do We Know of the Mobility of Research Scientists and Impact on Scientific Production

In this chapter we review the literature on the analysis of researcher mobility and productivity, highlighting recent changes in the research system internationalization, intersector mobility, and collaboration and career diversification—which make researcher mobility more relevant for the dynamics of knowledge creation and dissemination. This review reveals that, to date, we still know little about the consequences and motivations of increased mobility for individual researchers. We contribute by presenting a typology of researcher mobility, and considering the relevance of multiple mobility events throughout a researcher career. Finally, we review the modeling problems related to analyzing the effect of mobility on academic performance at the individual level, and suggest various solutions.