International Degree and Post-Diploma Mobility in Information Science

Abstract

This study analyzed CV’s of 882 authors and reviewers of the iConference to observe degree and post-diploma mobility in Information science. Half of all who were analyzed are Americans, who mostly never left their continent. On the other hand, researchers from Asia and Europe, the other half, show a high rate of mobility towards North America. These patterns match the European fear of brain drain – the outflow of skilled scholars to the United States. To find out what reasons are behind mobility decisions the author conducted interviews with 16 information science scholars who were born in Europe or are resident in Europe. The results of this small sample showed that personal factors like family can be a push or pull factor, meanwhile the job search in the academic sector is a push factor for international mobility. For the PhD students the financing of their doctorate is the significant factor to move. Another question this study tried to answer was if and how the professional information behavior of scholars is changing through mobility. The awareness of changes in one’s own skills, when it comes to information seeking in work-related matters, is low. Mostly the researchers described the changes in their environment instead. These descriptions helped to construct a model of the “Characteristics of a research environment”. Based on this model, the author concluded that brain drain has become a buzzword to stir up migration policy. English speaking countries are highly attractive to scholars in information science, both because English is the lingua franca for information science and because these research environments are often wealthier.