Specialization and the road to academic success

Abstract

The relative merits of focusing research on few areas of science versus generalizing across topics have important implications for how academics conduct science. Little is known, however, about how research breadth and academic success are related. Drawing on data from more than 4000 ecologists and evolutionary biologists worldwide, we show that highest academic success is achieved at intermediate levels of research breadth. This suggests that being a "jack of all trades" or an overly narrow specialist could both be detrimental to long term academic success.