A Study On Multidimensional Characteristics Of International Mobility Of China-affiliated Researchers Based On Academic Performance

As science and technology continue to break through geographical limitations,the value of knowledge mobility is increasingly recognized.As an important carrier of knowledge,scientists are increasingly free to move across borders,which has intensified the competition for talents among countries.Only by deeply grasping the characteristics of scholars' international mobility in different periods and dimensions can we guide the rational flow of talents in a more targeted manner and build a research and innovation highland that gathers outstanding talents from home and abroad.Based on previous academic achievements and different talent flow patterns,this paper uses the disambiguation data of the Web of Science between 2008-2019 to track the mobility of each author through the changes in their affiliation addresses in different years.We define the authors whose first paper is affiliated with China as Chinaaffiliated scholars,and classify China-affiliated mobile scholars into three types(Brain drain,Talent backflow,Brain circulation)according to the academic origin country and destination country.Combining the methods of scientometrics,data visualization,and statistical analysis,this paper constructs indicators of mobility characteristics from time and space dimension to study the international mobility of different China-affiliated mobile scholars,and takes academic age and disciplinary field into account.In addition,we further discuss the correlation between mobility characteristics and academic performance,and summarize the characteristics of international scientific mobility of China-affiliated scholars.The study found that:(1)the distribution of international mobility characteristics of China-affiliated scholars is generally unbalanced.Most scholars show no transnational mobility experience,and most mobile scholars prefer short-term,small-scale,and lowfrequency mobility.(2)Different mobility types of scholars have different scale advantages under different strengths of mobility characteristics.When the mobility characteristics are weak,the returnees have the scale advantage.when the mobility characteristics become strong,the outflow scholars and circulation-type scholars have the scale advantage.(3)China-affiliated mobile scholars show stronger mobility than before.The growth trends of different mobility types of scholars differ slightly,and circulation-type scholars' mobility has been enhanced more rapidly in recent years.(4)The mobility characteristics of scholars vary significantly by academic age and disciplinary fields.In terms of academic age,the older scholars show stronger mobility characteristics.In terms of disciplinary fields,scholars in Natural Science and engineering and Biomedical and Life Sciences fields stay abroad longer and move more frequently.(5)The academic performance distribution of scholars differs by mobility type,and the mobility characteristics of scholars are correlated with academic performance.Returnees are more productive than circulation-type and outflow scholars,and outflow scholars are more influential than returnees and circulation-type scholars.Oversea duration,the number of mobile countries,and mobility frequency are significantly and positively correlated with absolute quantity of papers,relative quantity of papers,total citation,and average citation per paper.Among those characteristics,oversea duration is most strongly correlated with and academic productivity and influence.The correlation between mobility characteristics and academic productivity is stronger than academic influence.