(Seleccionados)
2018
Scientific knowledge percolation process and social impact: A case study on the biotechnology and microbiology perceptions on Twitter
Beatriz Barros, Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Raul Fidalgo-Merino and Francisco Triguero
Science and Public Policy Change, 45 (6): 804-814.
This article describes a methodology for analysing the diffusion of scientific information into the social sphere, termed the ‘scientific knowledge percolation process’. The methodology was built using automated data collection and lexicon-based data mining techniques. We analysed literature from the scientific biotechnology community (158 journals in 2011; 29,892 articles generating 50,591 different keywords) and how it is perceived by users of the social media site Twitter (375,660 tweets with a subset classified by sentiment (positive, negative, and neutral) for a total of 33,900 tweets for 2012). We show that our method is able to provide data from which we can draw robust conclusions concerning the relationship between scientific and social media information. The study shows that the scientific production of our subset is socially perceived in a neutral manner although it is skewed towards the negative. Because sentiments are relevant for explaining the sharing behaviour of social media users, the results suggest that more attention needs to be paid towards the social perceptions of scientific research. We found that similar scientific concepts can be socially perceived in different ways, which may suggest that there is room for scientists to choose more ‘socially friendly’ descriptions.
2016
Productivity Pay-offs from Academic Mobility: Should I stay or should I go?
Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Aldo Geuna and Cornelia Lawson
Industrial and Corporate Change, 25 (1): 91-114.
This article analyses the impact of interorganizational mobility on academic performance. We develop a theoretical framework based on the job-matching approach adapted for researchers. The empirical analysis studies the careers of a sample of 171 UK academics, spanning 1957–2005. We find no evidence that mobility per se increases academic performance. Only mobility to “better” departments has a positive weakly significant impact, while downward mobility reduces researchers’ productivity. Job mobility is always associated with a short-term decrease in performance.
New organizational arrangement for public-private research collaboration
Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Inés Andujar Nagore, Sandro Giachi and Manuel Fernández-Esquinas
Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 7(1): 80-103.
This paper studies Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) as organizational platforms for Targeted Open Innovation. Specifically, the concept of Targeted Open Innovation is used to interpret the engagement of firms with other stakeholders within an innovation ecosystem in order to better collaborate and share their knowledge. The paper analyses the funding structure of CRCs in Spain using a sample of 123 CRCs. We aim to determine the effect of the degree of intersectoral collaboration on the CRCs’ funding portfolio. We characterised CRCs—“market-oriented”, “academic-oriented” and “government-oriented”—according to the degree of involvement of each sectoral actor in diverse organisational aspects, setting their objectives, executing the R&D and establishing the managerial processes and evaluation practices. We find that CRCs with market-oriented characteristics rely less on public competitive funds and CRCs with academic-oriented characteristics have a more diversified funding portfolio.
2015
SiSOB data extraction and codification: A tool to analyze scientific careers
Aldo Geuna, Rodrigo Kataishi, Manuel Toselli, Eduardo Guzmán, Cornelia Lawson, Ana Fernández-Zubieta and Beatriz Barros
Research Policy, 44 (9): 1645-1658.
This paper describes the methodology and software tool used to build a database on the careers and productivity of academics, using public information available on the Internet, and provides a first analysis of the data collected for a sample of 360 US scientists funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and 291 UK scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Te tool’s structured outputs can be used for either econometric research or data representation for policy analysis. The methodology and software tool is validated for a sample of US and UK biomedical scientists, but can be applied to any countries where scientists’ CVs are available in English. We provide an overview of the motivations for constructing the database, and the data crawling and data mining techniques used to transform webpage-based information and CV information into a relational database. We describe the database and the effectiveness of our algorithms and provide suggestions for further improvements. The software developed is released under free software GNU General Public License; the aim is for it to be available to the community of social scientists and economists interested in analyzing scientific production and scientific careers, who it is hoped will develop this tool further.
Cobertura de prensa: Nature
International stays abroad, collaborations and the return of researchers
Inés Andújar Nagore, Carolina Cañibano, Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Science, Technology and Society, 20 (3): 322-348.
This article uses curricular information from a sample of applicants to the Spanish Ramón y Cajal programme to, on the one hand, assess the extent to which international mobility has an impact on the collaboration patterns of researchers and, on the other hand, to address the connection between collaboration patterns and the likelihood of return to Spain. We focus on two main types of collaborations: co-publications and collaboration in research projects through formal participation. We find that longer stays abroad seem to provide better opportunities to publish with a host principal investigator and to participate in research projects in the recipient country. We find that the length of the stay also has an impact on the likelihood of return to Spain: longer stays abroad reduce the likelihood of return. However, a longer duration international stay does not affect the collaboration links maintained with the home country, which may persist over time. We also find that public financial support is crucial for explaining and facilitating the return of Spanish researchers from abroad.
2014
Propiedades relacionales de las redes de colaboración y generación de conocimiento científico: ¿Una cuestión de tamaño o equilibrio?
Africa Villanueva-Felez, Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Davinia Palomares-Montero
Revista Española de Documentación Científica, 37 (4): 1-13.
El artículo analiza la influencia de las redes de los investigadores en la cantidad y calidad de su producción de conocimiento científico, con datos obtenidos de un cuestionario, cumplimentado por 191 investigadores/académicos españoles especializados en nanotecnología. Se consideran las redes que los investigadores establecen con otros individuos y organizaciones y se examina el efecto de las propiedades relacionales de las redes de colaboración (grado de incrustación y heterogeneidad nodal) en la producción científica, teniendo en cuenta el tamaño de la red. Se observa que el equilibrio en las redes personales y organizativas explica más la cantidad y la calidad de la producción científica que el tamaño de las redes. Las redes personales equilibradas en su fuerza y su diversidad geográfica facilitan la producción científica y, en su aspecto geográfico, su calidad. Las redes organizativas equilibradas en su diversidad institucional, al contrario que en su dimensión geográfica, también facilita la cantidad de producción.
2013
What drives researchers ‘careers? The role of international mobility, gender and family
Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Elisabetta Marinelli and Susana Elena-Perez
Sociology of Technoscience. Special Issue on International Mobility, 3 (3): 8-30.
International mobility has become increasingly common in the research profession, partly due to strong policy support. To understand this trend, it is necessary to explore how researchers plan and envisage their career, that is, what drives their decisions. In this exploratory paper we shed light on this issue, comparing career drivers across three mobility categories. Furthermore, we take into account gender and the parental status of the researchers, as both factors remarkably influence career choices. We use data from the Study on International Mobility and Researchers’ Career Development Project (SIM-ReC), launched in 2011 by the Institute of Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) in collaboration with NIFU (Norway), Logotech (Greece) and the University of Athens. The dataset covers researchers working in European universities across ten countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The results highlight how different mobility patterns reflect different motivations and confirm that gender and parenthood are critical in shaping career decisions.
2009
Recognition and weak ties. Is there a positive effect of postdoctoral positions in academic performance and career development?
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Research Evaluation, 18 (2): 105-115.
This article analyses the effect of researchers’ postdoctoral mobility on academic performance. Postdoctoral positions are considered and conceptualised as a special type of researcher mobility. We use the curriculum vitae of UK academic scientists as a source of information, in addition to the ISI Web of Knowledge and the European Patent Office. We find major differences in the patterns of mobility between the pure and the transfer sciences. Pure scientists tend to move via a postdoctoral appointment, whereas transfer scientists tend to change job positions. We find that international postdoctoral mobility is positively correlated with publications for non job-mobile pure scientists in a five-year period starting two years after completion of the PhD, and with the total number of citations. The explanation is that weak institutional ties connected with postdoctoral fellowships give researchers access to institutions with higher reputation, which in turn gives access to valuable knowledge and networks. This institutional advantage means that international postdoctoral mobility has a positive influence on academic performance. The lack of significance of the correlation between precocity and international postdoctoral mobility makes it impossible to determine whether international postdoctoral mobility is a non-early advantage with positive effects on a scientist’s productivity and career development.
El constructivismo social en la ciencia: las consecuencias no previstas de la ambivalencia epistemológica
Ana Fernández Zubieta
Arbor, 738: 689-703.
The article summarises the main currents and contributions of constructivist approach in Science and Technology Studies. This approach portrays science as a collective enterprise. It shows that competing claims about nature indicate that techno-scientific evidence is flexible. The paper considers that epistemological agnosticism or atheism of the sociology of science to be G limitation in the constructivist approach. The paper notes that, paradoxically, in order to benefit from the insights of the constructivist approach an epistemological commitment is needed. This commitment requires admitting that it is possible and necessary to know what evidence is more robust, and what methodologies and theories are more powerful.
2008
Activismo Transnacional y calidad de la democracia en Mexico: Reflexiones en torno al caso de Ciudad Juarez
Alberto Martín Álvarez, Ana Fernández Zubieta and Karla Villareal
European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 84: 21-36.
El artículo analiza el impacto de la internacionalización de la movilización en pro del esclarecimiento de los crímenes cometidos contra mujeres en Ciudad Juárez, México. La capacidad de las organizaciones de familiares de desaparecidas de concitar la solidaridad de organizaciones y redes nacionales e internacionales, ha sido determinante para desencadenar la intervención del gobierno federal mexicano en la investigación de los crímenes. Asimismo, a través de la inserción del problema en marcos de interpretación más amplios — los de la violencia de género y los derechos humanos -, las organizaciones de Juárez han contribuido a abrir el debate en torno a la violencia contra la mujer en México. Sin embargo, a nivel local los resultados del movimiento se encuentran aún lejos de ser satisfactorios -debido a problemas relacionados tanto con los problemas internos y la fragilidad de las organizaciones locales, como con problemas estructurales de la democracia mexicana, incluyendo la debilidad del estado de derecho y las dificultades del sistema político para implementar una rendición de cuentas efectiva.
2007
Difusión transnacional de identidades juveniles en la expansión de las Maras Centroamericanas
Alberto Martín Álvarez, Ana Fernández Zubieta and Karla Villareal
Perfiles Latinoamericanos, 30: 101-122.
Las maras Salvatrucha y Barrio 18 son dos pandillas juveniles violentas con amplia presencia en América Central y Estados Unidos. Estos grupos reciben atención creciente por parte de los académicos debido a sus progresivos vínculos transnacionales y los inusitados niveles de violencia que utilizan; este artículo plantea que su expansión a través de las fronteras nacionales se explica en gran medida por su capacidad para generar un atractivo marco de referencia identitario que resuena positivamente en el repertorio cultural de los jóvenes del área centroamericana. La política de deportaciones del gobierno estadounidense, las medidas de “mano dura” implementadas por algunos gobiernos de la región y los movimientos migratorios están facilitando la difusión de esas identidades en el espacio centroamericano a lo largo de la última década.
(Seleccionados)
2015
What do We Know of the Mobility of Research Scientists and of its Impact on Scientific Production
Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Aldo Geuna and Cornelia Lawson
In A. Geuna. (ed.), Global mobility of research scientists: the economics of who goes where and why
Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego (CA.), pp. 1-33.
ISBN: 978-0-12-801396-0
University of Turin Working paper No. 22/15
International Mobility of Researchers in Biomedial Sciences: A Comparison of the US and the UK
Cornelia Lawson, Aldo Geuna, Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Rodrigo Kataishi, Manuel Toseli
In A Geuna (ed.), Global mobility of research scientists: the economics of who goes where and why
Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego (CA.), pp. 68-104.
ISBN: 978-0-12-801396-0
SPRU working paper series 2015-09
Reptes de la gestió i la planificació del sistema català de recerca i innovació: una visió europea
Laura Díaz-Bueso, Miriam Cueto and Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Escola d’Administració Pública de Catalunya, Barcelona
ISBN 84-608-3047-0
Mobility and Productivity of Research Scientists
Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Aldo Geuna and Cornelia Lawson
In A Geuna (ed.). Global mobility of research scientists: the economics of who goes where and why
Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego (CA.), pp.105-131.
ISBN 978-0-12-801396-0
2014
International job mobility and career consolidation of European researchers
Elisabetta Marinelli, E., Ana Fernández-Zubieta and Susana Elena-Perez
In M Gerard and S Uebelmesser (eds.), The mobility of Students and the Highly Skilled
The MIT Press (CESifo Book Series), Cambridge, pp 83-104.
ISBN 9780262028172
Entre dos mundos. La aventura de la innovación y creación de empresas en Andalucía
Inés Andujar Nagore, Ana Fernández-Zubieta and Manuel Fernández-Esquinas
Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía
I Premio de Ensayo CTA sobre Innovación en Andalucía
ISBN 978-84-695-9597-8
2013
Generación de conocimiento científico y estructura de la red personal
Africa Villanueva Félez and Ana Fernández-Zubieta
In G González Alcaide, J Gómez Ferri and V Agulló Calatayud (eds.), La colaboración científica: una aproximación multidisciplinar
Nau Libres, Valencia, pp. 367-380.
ISBN 978-84-7642-930-3
Crowdfunding de proyectos de ciencia e investigación
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
In G González Alcaide, J Gómez Ferri and V Agulló Calatayud (eds.), La colaboración científica: una aproximación multidisciplinar
Nau Libres, Valencia, pp. 491-499.
ISBN 978-84-7642-930-3
2009
Human Right Violations: Central American immigrants at the Northeastern Mexico Border
Alberto Martín Álvarez and Ana Fernández-Zubieta
In K Staudt, T Payan and A Kruszewsky (eds.), Human Rights along the U.S.-mexico border: gender violence and insecurity
The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 48-62.
ISBN 978-0-8165-2805-9
2008
La épica epistemológica de las Ciencias Sociales
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
In J Palacios, J Modesto and J L Anta (eds.), Epistemología y metodología: Perspectivas antropológicas
Quaderna, Murcia, pp.93-124.
ISBN 978-84-96353-75-6
2006
Anomalias Sociales
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
In R Orsi (ed.) El desencanto como promesa. Fundamentación alcance y límites de la razón práctica
Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, pp. 193-207.
ISBN 84-9742-561-8
(Seleccionados)
2019
Informe de urgencia sobre sobre la inversión en I+D+i en el Proyecto de Presupuestos Generales del Estado para 2019
José de No, José Molero y Ana Fernández-Zubieta
COSCE
Layers, levels and coordination challenges. Comparing S3 governance in Puglia and Extremadura
Elisabetta Marinelli, Federico Bertamino y Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
2018
Análisis de los recursos destinados a la I+D+i (Política de Gasto 46) contenidos en los Presupuestos Generales del Estado aprobados para el año 2018
José de No, José Molero y Ana Fernández-Zubieta
COSCE
RIO Country Report 2017: Spain
Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Irene Ramos Vielba and Thomas Zcharewicz
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
ISBN 978-92-79-81829-5
Nota de Alcance sobre la inversión en I+D+i en los Presupuestos Generales del Estado aprobados para 2018
José de No, José Molero y Ana Fernández-Zubieta
COSCE
2015
RIO Country Report 2014: Spain
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
ISBN 978-92-79-48968-6
2014
ERAWATCH Country Report 2013: Spain
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
ISBN 978-92-79-39551-2
ERAWATCH Country Report 2012: Spain
Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
ISBN 978-92-79-34526-5
2011
Barriers and Bottlenecks to Making Research Careers More Attractive and Promoting Mobility
Ana Fernández-Zubieta and René Van Bavel
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
European university funding and financial autonomy. A study on the degree of diversification of university budget and the share of competitive funding
Laura De Dominicis, Susana Elena and Ana Fernández-Zubieta
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
2010
Improving knowledge flows: Human resources and researcher mobility
Ana Fernández-Zubieta and Ken Guy
Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

Towards a horizontal reading of ERAWATCH: A case study on policies in support of human resources for research
Dimitrios Pontikakis, Ana Fernández-Zubieta, Luiza Heriques, Philipe Moguérou and Paula Petrogiacomo