Gender differences in the patterns and consequences of changing research directions in scientific careers

Changes of research directions in scientific careers are related to the so-called “essential tension” between exploration of new knowledge and exploitation of established knowledge in research and innovation. Changes of research directions are thereby assumed to influence the evolution of science in general. Research has shown that such changes may also affect the success of individual scientists in their careers. However, the gender dimension of this aspect of career development is so far understudied. There is also need for more dynamic indicators to record and interpret career developments in macro data. This study combines the gender perspective with the introduction of new indicators. We selected more than 29,000 scientists in Physics & Astronomy and studied them over six decades using a bibliographic dataset from Scopus. We find that women are less likely to change research directions than their men counterparts, and that the research performance of women is less negatively affected by changing research directions. We discuss the policy implications of these findings as well as the methodological advancement related to the new indicators of career development.