# Achieving competitive advantage in academia through early career coauthorship with top scientists

## TL;DR

This study demonstrates that early coauthorship with top scientists significantly boosts junior researchers' long-term career success across multiple disciplines, especially for those from less prestigious institutions.

## Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that early collaborations with top scientists confer lasting advantages, highlighting the importance of access to leading researchers for career development.

## Key findings

- Junior researchers with top scientist coauthors have higher long-term success.
- The advantage is strongest for those from less prestigious institutions.
- Repeated collaborations with top scientists increase the likelihood of becoming one.

## Abstract

We quantify the long term impact that the coauthorship with established top-cited scientists has on the career of junior researchers in four different scientific disciplines. Through matched pair analysis, we find that junior researchers who coauthor work with top scientists enjoy a persistent competitive advantage throughout the rest of their careers with respect to peers with similar early career profiles. Such a competitive advantage materialises as a higher probability of repeatedly coauthoring work with top-cited scientists, and, ultimately, as a higher probability of becoming one. Notably, we find that the coauthorship with a top scientist has the strongest impact on the careers of junior researchers affiliated with less prestigious institutions. As a consequence, we argue that such institutions may hold vast amounts of untapped potential, which may be realised by improving access to top scientists.