Falagas, ME (Falagas, Matthew E.); Ierodiakonou, V (Ierodiakonou, Vrettos); Alexiou, VG (Alexiou, Vangelis G.) At what age do biomedical scientists do their best work? FASEB JOURNAL, 22 (12): 4067-4070 DEC 2008

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: m.falagas at aibs.gr 

Author(s): Falagas, ME (Falagas, Matthew E.); Ierodiakonou, V 
(Ierodiakonou, Vrettos); Alexiou, VG (Alexiou, Vangelis G.)
 
Title: At what age do biomedical scientists do their best work? 

Source: FASEB JOURNAL, 22 (12): 4067-4070 DEC 2008 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Author Keywords: creative productivity; scientific workforce; research 
performance; age distribution; scientific literature 

Abstract: Several human characteristics that influence scientific research 
performance, including set goals, mental and physical abilities, 
education, and experience, may vary considerably during the life cycle of 
scientists. We sought to answer the question of whether high-quality 
research productivity is associated with investigator's age. We randomly 
selected 300 highly cited scientists (50 from each of 6 different 
biomedical fields, specifically immunology, microbiology, neuroscience, 
psychology-psychiatry, clinical medicine, and biology-biochemistry). Then, 
we identified the top 5 highly cited articles (within 10 yr after 
publication adjusted for the expansion of the literature) as first author 
of each of them. Subsequently, we plotted the distribution of the 1500 
analyzed articles of the 300 studied scientists in the eight 5-year 
intervals of investigator's age during the year of article publication (21-
25 to 55-60 yr of age), adjusted for person-years of contribution of each 
scientist in the various age groups. Highly cited research productivity 
plotted a curve that peaked at the age group of 31-35 yr of age and then 
gradually decreased with advancing age. However, a considerable proportion 
of this highly cited research was produced by older scientists (in almost 
20% of the analyzed articles, researchers were older than 50 yr). The 
results were similar in another analysis of the single most cited article 
of each studied scientist. In conclusion, high-quality scientific 
productivity in the biomedical fields as a function of investigator's age 
plots an inverted U-shaped curve, in which significant decreases take 
place from around 40 yr of age and beyond. 

Addresses: [Falagas, Matthew E.; Ierodiakonou, Vrettos; Alexiou, Vangelis 
G.] Alfa Inst Biomed Sci, Athens 15123, Greece; [Falagas, Matthew E.] 
Henry Dunant Hosp, Dept Med, Athens, Greece; [Falagas, Matthew E.] Tufts 
Univ, Sch Med, Dept Med, Boston, MA 02111 USA 

Reprint Address: Falagas, ME, Alfa Inst Biomed Sci, 9 Neapoleos St, Athens 
15123, Greece. 

E-mail Address: m.falagas at aibs.gr 

Cited Reference Count: 9 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: FEDERATION AMER SOC EXP BIOL 

Publisher Address: 9650 ROCKVILLE PIKE, BETHESDA, MD 20814-3998 USA 

ISSN: 0892-6638 

DOI: 10.1096/fj.08-117606 

29-char Source Abbrev.: FASEB J 

ISO Source Abbrev.: Faseb J. 

Source Item Page Count: 4 

Subject Category: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Biology; Cell Biology
 
ISI Document Delivery No.: 377MH 

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