夕阳无限好--从美国大学教授发表期刊文章看年龄与科研能力之间的关系

Age and Research Capacity─Full Time Faculty in American Universities

年龄与科研能力的关系是一个对科技与教育政策有重大影响的科研课题。围绕教授科研生涯的轨迹和近期的科研行为，本文试图应用人生过程理论来探索年龄与科研能力之间的动态关系。使用来自2004年美国最新的全国高等院校教授研究，以发表同行评审期刊文章的数量作为判定科研能力的依据，本研究发现，年龄对科研能力有明显的正面影响，科研能力的巅峰不只是出现在一个年龄段而是多个年龄段。当引入性别、专业、大学声望、出生地作为控制变量时，年龄对科研能力的正面影响依然存在，而且还显得斑斓多彩。在寿命预期大幅增长、科研复杂程度日益加深的大背景下，本研究的结果应当唤起人们对年龄与科研政策的重新审视。

The relationship between age and research capacity is an important topic for the policies of science and education. Around life trajectory and transitions of faculty research， this paper tries to use life course theory to explore relationship between age and research capacity by using data from the most recent faculty survey in American higher education (2004). We found that age and research capacity appears positively correlated. In faculty’s research span， they show several peaks research capacity periods. When gender， field of specialty， university prestige， and faculty birthplace are introduced as control variables， there are the positive relationships between age and research capacity. The research suggested that due to the increase of life expectancy and the complication of research， policy-makers need to rethink the relationship between age and research capacity in policy development.