Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Different personal propensities among scientists relate to deeper vs. broader knowledge contributions

Thomas S. Bateman and Andrew M. Hess
  1. aMcIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904; and
  2. bWilliams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS first published March 2, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1421286112
Thomas S. Bateman
aMcIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904; and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: tsb3c@virginia.edu
Andrew M. Hess
bWilliams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Edited by Dean Keith Simonton, University of California, Davis, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board February 3, 2015 (received for review November 6, 2014)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

Scientists’ productivity usually is measured with a single metric, such as number of articles published. Here, we study two dimensions of scientists’ knowledge contributions in 10-y publication records: their depth and their breadth. Study 1 shows that scientists view pursuing a deeper research project to be more attractive than pursuing a broader project; for example, scientists viewed broad projects as riskier and less important than deeper projects. Study 2 shows that scientists’ personal dispositions predict the aggregated depth vs. breadth of their published articles. Armed with such knowledge, scientists can strategically consider the desired nature of their research portfolios, criteria for choosing and designing research projects, how to compose research teams, and the inhibitors and facilitators of boundary-crossing research.

Abstract

Scientific journal publications, and their contributions to knowledge, can be described by their depth (specialized, domain-specific knowledge extensions) and breadth (topical scope, including spanning multiple knowledge domains). Toward generating hypotheses about how scientists’ personal dispositions would uniquely predict deeper vs. broader contributions to the literature, we assumed that conducting broader studies is generally viewed as less attractive (e.g., riskier) than conducting deeper studies. Study 1 then supported our assumptions: the scientists surveyed considered a hypothetical broader study, compared with an otherwise-comparable deeper study, to be riskier, a less-significant opportunity, and of lower potential importance; they further reported being less likely to pursue it and, in a forced choice, most chose to work on the deeper study. In Study 2, questionnaire measures of medical researchers’ personal dispositions and 10 y of PubMed data indicating their publications’ topical coverage revealed how dispositions differentially predict depth vs. breadth. Competitiveness predicted depth positively, whereas conscientiousness predicted breadth negatively. Performance goal orientation predicted depth but not breadth, and learning goal orientation contrastingly predicted breadth but not depth. Openness to experience positively predicted both depth and breadth. Exploratory work behavior (the converse of applying and exploiting one’s current knowledge) predicted breadth positively and depth negatively. Thus, this research distinguishes depth and breadth of published knowledge contributions, and provides new insights into how scientists’ personal dispositions influence research processes and products.

  • personality
  • goal orientation
  • competitiveness
  • exploration
  • scientific performance productivity

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: tsb3c{at}virginia.edu.
  • Author contributions: T.S.B. and A.M.H. designed research; T.S.B. and A.M.H. performed research; A.M.H. analyzed data; and T.S.B. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. D.K.S. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1421286112/-/DCSupplemental.

Next
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Different personal propensities among scientists relate to deeper vs. broader knowledge contributions
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Predicting deep and broad knowledge contributions
Thomas S. Bateman, Andrew M. Hess
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2015, 201421286; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1421286112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Predicting deep and broad knowledge contributions
Thomas S. Bateman, Andrew M. Hess
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2015, 201421286; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1421286112
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 118 (16)
Current Issue

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Depiction of the sun's heliosphere with Voyager spacecraft at its edge.
News Feature: Voyager still breaking barriers decades after launch
Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 are still helping to resolve past controversies even as they help spark a new one: the true shape of the heliosphere.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Drop of water creates splash in a puddle.
Journal Club: Heavy water tastes sweeter
Heavy hydrogen makes heavy water more dense and raises its boiling point. It also appears to affect another characteristic long rumored: taste.
Image credit: Shutterstock/sl_photo.
Mouse fibroblast cells. Electron bifurcation reactions keep mammalian cells alive.
Exploring electron bifurcation
Jonathon Yuly, David Beratan, and Peng Zhang investigate how electron bifurcation reactions work.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490