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Comeback or dropout: study of discontinued researchers at early career stage

This work studies researchers who stop publishing early in their careers and distinguishes permanent dropout from later return, with particular attention to knowledge bridging across scientific communities.

Published articleProject page
Early-career activityPublication gapReturn or dropoutKnowledge bridging

Plain-language summary

Publication gaps are often treated as permanent exit from research. This study separates researchers who return after a long break from those who do not, and analyzes how returning researchers connect previously separated knowledge communities.

Research contribution

  • Large-scale analysis of early-career publication histories.
  • Network measures for cross-community knowledge bridging.
  • Predictive modeling of research return and dropout patterns.

Publication status

Published in Scientometrics in 2025. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-025-05243-z.

Code and dataset

The study uses bibliometric publication-network data. No standalone public code or dataset release is currently linked.

Recommended citation

Gayen, A., Chakraborty, S., Mitra, S., and Jana, A. (2025). Comeback or dropout: study of discontinued researchers at early career stage. Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-025-05243-z

BibTeX

@article{gayen2025comeback, title={Comeback or dropout: study of discontinued researchers at early career stage}, author={Gayen, Avijit and Chakraborty, Somyajit and Mitra, Saikat and Jana, Angshuman}, journal={Scientometrics}, year={2025}, doi={10.1007/s11192-025-05243-z} }

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