Issue #85
by Michael Seadle (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Jack Grove wrote an article for the Times Higher Education entitled “Junior researchers ‘cited more if PhD supervisor is well known’: Success of those mentored by highly regarded scholars suggests ‘chaperone effect’ is increasingly important, finds study”.¹ An important finding was that: “In a paper published in the Royal Society journal Interface (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2024.0173) on 14 August, researchers survey the ‘academic genealogy’ of more than 300,000 academics who published nearly 10 million papers to work out if the PhD graduates of highly cited authors are more widely cited than those whose mentors had a lower academic reputation – a phenomenon that has often been attributed to the ‘chaperone effect’.¹ “Political science, computing and anthropology … have high levels of ‘impact inequality’ …”, but apparently the effect was strongest in “philosophy, mathematics and linguistics.”¹ The study also found that the “‘impact persistence’ … was slightly higher if the supervisor was female.”¹
The issue may be more complex than simple numbers suggest. Grove notes that the study “... also argues that PhD students of well-known scholars are able to benefit from more networking opportunities.”¹ Well-known scholars may simply be better able to advise students about where to submit their work. Such supervisors may also help them understand the reviewer’s critical comments and how to address them, so that the paper can move forward. “[T]he study suggests that ‘academia has become less open and more stratified over time, as newer protégé cohorts are characterised by lower intergenerational mobility than their predecessors’.”¹
Stratification is nothing new: those doctoral students who are fortunate enough to get into top schools with well-known faculty are likely to benefit from the contacts, which is why students compete to get into the best programs. Top scholars also presumably have good judgment about whom to select as their doctoral students. There is good reason to think that the citation advantage is real, but it is like noting that people from well-to-do families have advantages in society, which is unsurprising.
1: Grove, Jack. “Junior Researchers ‘Cited More If PhD Supervisor Is Well Known’: Success of Those Mentored by Highly Regarded Scholars Suggests ‘Chaperone Effect’ Is Increasingly Important, Finds Study.” Times Higher Education, August 14, 2024. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/junior-researchers-cited-more-if-phd-supervisor-well-known.
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