This study offers a unique lens on the patterns, productivity, and impact of researcher mobility at a US research-intensive university. Bibliometric data for Washington State University (WSU) was extracted from Elsevier’s Scopus database and analyzed for the 10-year period from 2002 to 2012. We grouped researchers into four categories based on common patterns of movement into, within, and out of the USA: mobile (inflow, outflow, and transitory) versus non-mobile (stationary). We compared the research performances of these different groups using two normalized indicators: relative research productivity and the field-weighted citation impact of the researchers’ publications. Our analysis showed that 83% of active researchers at WSU were mobile during the 10-year period based on their having both publications affiliated with WSU and publications affiliated with at least one other institution. The publications of mobile researchers had higher impact compared to non-mobile researchers. Additionally, WSU researchers who primarily moved between other US-based institutions produced publications with higher impact compared to those of internationally mobile researchers, though the latter group was more prolific. Transitory researchers—those spending less than 2 years at either WSU or another institution—comprised the largest sub-group of mobile researchers at 59%. The results of this study offer additional evidence about the value to US universities of researcher mobility and greater research collaborations with both domestic and international partners.

中文翻译：

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美国研究型大学的研究人员流动性：对研究和国际化战略的启示

这项研究为美国研究型大学的研究人员的流动方式，生产率和影响提供了独特的视角。华盛顿州立大学（WSU）的文献计量数据是从Elsevier的Scopus数据库中提取的，并对2002年至2012年这10年进行了分析。根据进入，进入和离开美国的常见运动方式，我们将研究人员分为四类：移动（流入，流出和暂时）与非移动（固定）相比。我们使用两个归一化指标比较了这些不同群体的研究绩效：相对研究生产率和研究人员出版物的田地加权引文影响。我们的分析表明，根据WSU活跃的研究人员中有83％的研究人员在10年内都是流动的，因为他们既有附属于WSU的出版物又有附属于至少一个其他机构的出版物。与非移动研究人员相比，移动研究人员的出版物具有更高的影响力。此外，与在国际上流动的研究人员相比，主要在其他美国机构之间迁移的WSU研究人员产生的出版物影响更大，尽管后者更为丰富。瞬态研究人员（在WSU或另一所机构花费不到2年的时间）构成了最大的移动研究人员小组，占59％。