Given that venturing into unknown territory carries substantial risk, scientists do not take the decision to enter a new field lightly. This paper analyzes a broad set of factors associated with the risks and rewards from entry into new-to-the-researcher scientific fields, including individual capacities and preferences as well as incentives stemming from career progression and access to funding. Using a panel of researchers in biomedical sciences and science and engineering from a large European research university, we find that productivity affects new field entry as such but is not associated with entry into fields that are very distant to one’s current expertise. Scientists in more senior ranks, with larger co-author networks and collaborating with PhD students, are more likely to enter new fields, but these factors do not represent an additional push to enter very remote fields. Such “long jumps” are more likely to be made by above-average talented rather than merely productive researchers. Finally, accounting for its endogeneity, we find that funding does not make new field entry more likely.

中文翻译：

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不走寻常路：是什么驱使科学家进入新领域？

鉴于冒险进入未知领域会带来巨大风险，科学家们不会轻易做出进入新领域的决定。本文分析了与进入新的研究人员科学领域的风险和回报相关的一系列广泛因素，包括个人能力和偏好以及职业发展和获得资金的激励措施。通过使用来自欧洲大型研究型大学的生物医学科学和科学与工程研究人员小组，我们发现生产力会影响新领域的进入，但与进入与当前专业知识相距甚远的领域无关。拥有更大共同作者网络并与博士生合作的高级科学家更有可能进入新领域，但这些因素并不代表额外推动进入非常偏远的领域。这种“跳远”更有可能是由才华横溢的人才完成的，而不仅仅是富有成效的研究人员。最后，考虑到其内生性，我们发现资金并不会使新领域的进入更有可能。