Do funding schemes help ameliorate publications? An analysis among Italian academics who won FIRB and ERC

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Autori/Curatori Giulio Marini, Viviana Meschitti
Anno di pubblicazione 2024 Fascicolo 2023/167 Lingua Inglese
Numero pagine 22 P. 221-242 Dimensione file 279 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2023-167010
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

Some individual funding schemes aim at recognizing excellence of early and/or mid-career researchers, allowing them to boost their potential via munificent endowments, autonomy, and employment security. In Italy, this is the case of “Futuro in Ricerca” (FIRB), which is in many regards similar to the European Research Council (ERC) scheme. Both schemes are supposed to make excellence thrive, which is understood also in terms of publishing in leading journals and establishing international collaborations. The paper checks whether FIRB recipients are thereafter more performative in terms of quality of publication (ranking of target journals and international co-authorships), testing against a randomly extracted control group of Italian academics of similar age, rank and discipline. The study tests also against ERC recipients active in Italy. Results of difference-in-difference tests show that i) FIRB recipients improve their capacity to publish in highly ranked journals, similarly to what ERC recipients do; ii) these schemes do not incentivize international co-authorships; iii) FIRB is not conducive of notable changes within non-bibliometric disciplines.

Keywords:funding agency; scientific productivity; excellence in research; internationalization

  1. Abadie A. et al. (2017). When should you adjust standard errors for clustering? National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series 24003.
  2. Abramo G., D’Angelo A. C., and Murgia G. (2017). The relationship among research productivity, research collaboration, and their determinants. Journal of Informetrics, 11(4): 1016-1030.
  3. Akbaritabar A., Bravo G., and Squazzoni F. (2021). The impact of a national research assessment on the publications of sociologists in Italy. Science and Public Policy, 48(5): 662-678.
  4. Anderson D. M., Slade C. P. (2016). Managing institutional research advancement: Implications from a university faculty time allocation study. Research in higher education, 57(1): 99-121.
  5. Anzivino M., Dordoni, A. (2022). La produttività scientifica nell’accademia italiana in una prospettiva di genere. Socioligia del Lavoro, 162: 141-163. DOI: 10.3280/SL2022-162007.
  6. Ayoubi C., Pezzoni M., and Visentin F. (2019). The important thing is not to win, it is to take part: What if scientists benefit from participating in research grant competitions? Research Policy, 48(1): 84-97.
  7. Baldwin R. (1981). Expanding Faculty Options: Career Development Projects at Colleges and Universities. Text available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED217780.pdf. (28/07/2023)
  8. Bautista-Puig N., García-Zorita C., and Mauleón E. (2019). European Research Council: excellence and leadership over time from a gender perspective. Research Evaluation, 28(4): 370-382.
  9. Beerkens M. (2019). The European Research Council and the academic profession: insights from studying starting grant holders. European Political Science, 18(2): 267-274.
  10. Bol T., de Vaan M., and van de Rijt A. (2018). The Matthew effect in science funding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(19): 4887-4890.
  11. Bornmann L., Wallon G., and Ledin A. (2008). Does the committee peer review select the best applicants for funding? An investigation of the selection process for two European molecular biology organization programmes. PloS one, 3(10): e3480-e3480.
  12. Capano, G. (2018). Policy design spaces in reforming governance in higher education: the dynamics in Italy and the Netherlands. Higher Education, 75: 675-694.
  13. Carayol N., Lanoë M. (2017). The Impact of Project-Based Funding in Science: Lessons from the ANR Experience. Text available at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/grt/wpegrt/2017-04.html. (28/07/23)
  14. Chapman G. B., McCauley C. (1993). Early career achievements of National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate applicants: Looking for Pygmalion and Galatea effects on NSF winners. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(5): 815-820. DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.78.5.815
  15. Defazio D., Lockett A., and Wright M. (2009). Funding incentives, collaborative dynamics and scientific productivity: Evidence from the EU framework program. Research Policy, 38(2): 293-305.
  16. Edler J., Frischer D., Glanz M., and Stampfer M. (2014). Funding Individuals – Changing Organisations: The Impact of the ERC on Universities. In Organizational Transformation and Scientific Change: The Impact of Institutional Restructuring on Universities and Intellectual Innovation, Vol. 42, 77-109. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20140000042003.
  17. ERC (2015a). Comparative scientometric assessment of the results of ERC funded projects. Alternative metrics report (D7). European Commission. https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/ERC_Alternative_Metrics_report.pdf.
  18. ERC (2015b). Comparative scientometric assessment of the results of ERC funded projects. Bibliometric assessment report (D5). European Commission. https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/ERC_Bibliometrics_report.pdf.
  19. ERC (2020). Qualitative evaluation of completed projects funded by the European Research Council 2019. European Research Council. -- https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/2020-qualitative-evaluation-projects.pdf.
  20. Follesdal A. (2019). The European Research Council@ 10: whither hopes and fears?. European Political Science, 18(2): 237-247.
  21. Hadani M., Coombes S., Das D., and Jalajas D. (2012). Finding a good job: Academic network centrality and early occupational outcomes in management academia. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(5): 723-739.
  22. Hallonsten O., Hugander O. (2014). Supporting ‘future research leaders’ in Sweden: Institutional isomorphism and inadvertent funding agglomeration. Research Evaluation, 23(3): 249-260.
  23. Heffernan T. (2021). Academic networks and career trajectory:‘There’s no career in academia without networks’. Higher Education Research & Development, 40(5): 981-994, DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2020.1799948
  24. Henriksen D. (2016). The rise in co-authorship in the social sciences (1980–2013). Scientometrics, 107(2): 455-476.
  25. Hsu J.-w., Huang D.-w. (2011). Correlation between impact and collaboration. Scientometrics, 86(2): 317-324.
  26. Huber N., Wegner A., and Neufeld J. (2015). Evaluation report on the impact of the ERC Starting Grant Programme. MERCI (Monitoring European Research Council's Implementation of Excellence), iFQ-Working Paper(16). Text available at http://www.forschungsinfo.de/Publikationen/Download/working_paper_16_2015.pdf. (28/07/2023)
  27. Hussinger K., Carvalho J.N. (2022). The long-term effect of research grants on the scientific output of university professors. Industry and Innovation, 29(4): 463-487, DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2021.1990023
  28. Jacob B. A., Lefgren L. (2011a). The impact of NIH postdoctoral training grants on scientific productivity. Research Policy, 40(6): 864-874.
  29. Jacob B. A., Lefgren L. (2011b). The impact of research grant funding on scientific productivity. Journal of public economics, 95(9-10): 1168-1177.
  30. Jung J. (2014). Research productivity by career stage among Korean academics. Tertiary Education and Management, 20(2): 85-105. DOI: 10.1080/13583883.2014.88920
  31. Kalyani R. R., Yeh H.-C., Clark J. M., Weisfeldt M. L., Choi T., and MacDonald S. M. (2015). Sex differences among career development awardees in the attainment of independent research funding in a department of medicine. Journal of Women's Health, 24(11): 933-939.
  32. Langfeldt L., Benner M., Sivertsen G., Kristiansen E. H., Aksnes D. W., Borlaug, S. B., Hansen H. F., Kallerud E., and Pelkonen A. (2015). Excellence and growth dynamics: A comparative study of the Matthew effect. Science and Public Policy, 42(5): 661-675.
  33. Laufer M. (2020). Crossing academic borders: exploring the role of social capital in academic hiring. Comparative Education, 56(4): 583-601. DOI: 10.1080/03050068.2020.1782603
  34. Lawson C., Geuna A., and Finardi U. (2021). The funding-productivity-gender nexus in science, a multistage analysis. Research Policy, 50(3): 104182.
  35. Lerchenmueller M. J., Sorenson O. (2018). The gender gap in early career transitions in the life sciences. Research Policy, 47(6): 1007-1017.
  36. Luukkonen T. (2014). The European Research Council and the European research funding landscape. Science and Public Policy, 41(1): 29-43.
  37. Marini G. (2017). New promotion patterns in Italian universities: Less seniority and more productivity? Data from ASN. Higher Education, 73(2): 189-205.
  38. Marini G., Meschitti V. (2018). The trench warfare of gender discrimination: evidence from academic promotions to full professor in Italy. Scientometrics 115: 989-1006.
  39. Mateos-González J.L., Boliver V. (2019). Performance-based university funding and the drive towards ‘institutional meritocracy’ in Italy. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40:2: 145-158,  DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2018.149794
  40. Mayer S. J., Rathmann J. M. K. (2018). How does research productivity relate to gender? Analyzing gender differences for multiple publication dimensions. Scientometrics, 117(3): 1663-1693.
  41. Melin, G., Danell, R. (2006). The top eight percent: development of approved and rejected applicants for a prestigious grant in Sweden. Science and Public Policy, 33(10): 702-712. DOI: 10.3152/147154306781778579
  42. Mirnezami S. R., Beaudry C., and Tahmooresnejad L. (2020). The effect of collaboration with top-funded scholars on scientific production. Science and Public Policy, 47(2): 219-234.
  43. Morgan A. C., Economou D. J., Way S. F., and Clauset A. (2018). Prestige drives epistemic inequality in the diffusion of scientific ideas. EPJ Data Science, 7(1): 40.
  44. Nedeva M., Stampfer M. (2012). From “science in Europe” to “European science”. Science, 336(6084): 982-983.
  45. Neufeld J., Huber N., and Wegner A. (2013). Peer review-based selection decisions in individual research funding, applicants’ publication strategies and performance: The case of the ERC Starting Grants. Research Evaluation, 22(4): 237-247.
  46. Perc M. (2014). The Matthew effect in empirical data. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 11(98): 20140378.
  47. Pezzoni M., Sterzi V., and Lissoni F. (2012). Career progress in centralized academic systems: Social capital and institutions in France and Italy. Research Policy, 41(4): 704-719.
  48. Piezunka H., Lee W., Haynes R., and Bothner M. S. (2018). The Matthew effect as an unjust competitive advantage: Implications for competition near status boundaries. Journal of Management Inquiry, 27(4): 378-381. DOI: 10.1177/1056492617737712
  49. Pina D. G., Barać L., Buljan I., Grimaldo F., and Marušić A. (2019). Effects of seniority, gender and geography on the bibliometric output and collaboration networks of European Research Council (ERC) grant recipients. PloS one, 14(2): e0212286.
  50. Pluchino A., Biondo A.E., and Rapisarda A. (2018). Talent versus luck: The role of randomness in success and failure. Advances in Complex Systems. 21(3&4): 1850014. DOI: 10.1142/S0219525918500145
  51. Primeri E., Reale E., Lepori B., Laredo P., Nedeva M., and Thomas D. (2014). Measuring the opening of national R&D programs: what indicators for what purposes? Research Evaluation, 23(4): 312-326.
  52. Sato S., Gygax P. M., Randall J., and Schmid Mast M. (2020). The leaky pipeline in research grant peer review and funding decisions: challenges and future directions. Higher Education, 82: 145-162.
  53. Scheffler I. (1985). Of Human Potential. An Essay in the Philosophy of Education. Boston: Routledge.
  54. Steinþórsdóttir F. S., Einarsdóttir Þ., Pétursdóttir G. M., and Himmelweit S. (2020). Gendered inequalities in competitive grant funding: an overlooked dimension of gendered power relations in academia. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(2): 362-375. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2019.1666257.
  55. Thomas D., Nedeva M. (2012). Characterizing researchers to study research funding agency impacts: The case of the European Research Council’s Starting Grants. Research Evaluation, 21(4): 257-269.
  56. van Arensbergen P., van der Weijden I., and van den Besselaar P. (2012). Gender differences in scientific productivity: a persisting phenomenon? Scientometrics, 93(3): 857-868.
  57. Vinkenburg C. J., Connolly S., Fuchs S., Herschberg C., and Schels B. (2020). Mapping career patterns in research: A sequence analysis of career histories of ERC applicants. PloS one, 15(7): e0236252.
  58. Wang X., Liu C., Mao W., and Fang Z. (2015). The open access advantage considering citation, article usage and social media attention. Scientometrics, 103(2): 555-564.

Giulio Marini, Viviana Meschitti, Do funding schemes help ameliorate publications? An analysis among Italian academics who won FIRB and ERC in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 167/2023, pp 221-242, DOI: 10.3280/SL2023-167010