Figure 4

Basic features of scientists career.

(a) Illustration of three scientific trajectories based on publications where each line corresponds to one scientist and each publication is represented by a circle whose size is proportional to its number of citations cumulated within 5 years after its publication. The institutions are ranked according to the total number of citations they obtained (see Methods), 1 being the most cited institution. (b) The probability density function of movement according to time, P(t), shows that most movements occurred in the early stage of the career. This likely corresponds to the postdoc period where graduates broaden their horizons through mobility. (c) The probability density function of number of visited institutions for a scientist along his career, P(m), indicates that career movements are common but infrequent. Scientists mostly move once or twice, P(m) decaying quickly as m increases. (d) The probability density function of distance of movements, P(Δd), has a fat-tail that can be fitted by a power law with an exponent γ = 0.65 ± 0.053, whereas the null model predicts this probability to be roughly flat.