J. R. Soc. Interface 15, 20180580 (2018)

Changing countries seems to be an unspoken rule for making a career in academia — but what is the actual impact of academic mobility? Alexander M. Petersen looked into this question by analysing the publication record of 26,170 physicists between 1980 and 2009.

Each physicist who relocated in that period of time — roughly 60% of the total — was paired with a non-mobile colleague who had a similar output prior to the move. On average, the comparison between these pairs showed that in the ten years after their move, researchers tend to accrue up to 17% more citations than their immobile counterparts. Additionally, the data revealed the crucial role of mobility in rewiring the global collaboration network, as moves lead to curtailing of old collaborations and the creation of new ones. This positive effect applies at all academic levels, and is not only to the benefit of the elite — making a case for better support of international travel for young researchers.