How does Nobel prize awarding shift the research topics of Nobelists’ coauthors and non-coauthors?

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the influence of the Nobel prize promulgation on the research attention of Nobelists’ coauthors, especially those who have closely collaborated with the laureates on the prizewinning topics before the promulgation. Do these coauthors follow the prevailing trend triggered by the Nobel prize and consequently increase their studies on the award topics? Or, conversely, do these coauthors curtail their research attention on the honored topics and divert their efforts to new research horizons? To scrutinize this question, we utilize the APS dataset and the publication records of Nobelists to discern coauthorships among scholars. Then we employ network construction and community detection methods to identify scholars' research topics throughout their careers. Besides, we utilized the Propensity Score Matching to construct a parallel sample of Nobelists’ non-coauthors, who had never coauthored a paper with the corresponding laureate but had published at least one paper on the prizewinning topic. Following this, our main result substantiates that, after the Nobel awarding, coauthors exhibit a discernible reduction in publications on the award topics than non-coauthors. And the distinct choices of research strategy among distinct groups of scholars may be explained by the potential information asymmetry and different understandings concerning the award topics, as well as their distinct research intuitions in determining research direction. This study not only contributes to enriching our comprehension of how scientific prizes play a role in shaping research strategies of scientists within the award filed, but also stands as one of the pioneering contributions that focus on Nobelists’ coauthors.