An empirical analysis of the relationship between individual characteristics and research productivity

This paper provides an analysis of the relationship between research performance and individual characteristics (e.g., career path information) of researchers, based on information provided in the curriculum vitaes of 565 excellent researchers within the life sciences and medical sciences fields in Japan. I specifically analyzed the relationship between the experiences of practical physicians and research performance. As a result, I found that the experience as a practical physician had a statistically positive relationship with the number of research papers, but there was not a significant relationship with the number of citations. Moreover, the diversity of a researcher’s career related significantly to the number of citations and patents. An employment experience at a young age with a company or independent administrative agency had a significant and positive relationship with number of coauthors. However, a significant relationship between work experience in a foreign country and research performance was not observed.