Where are GIScience Faculty Hired from? Analyzing Faculty Mobility and Research Themes Through Hiring Networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes global GIScience faculty hiring networks, revealing influential institutions, regional retention patterns, and evolving research themes, thereby shedding light on knowledge dissemination and academic equity in the field.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of GIScience faculty placement patterns and research theme evolution using an extensive, volunteer-compiled dataset.

Findings

Hiring concentrated in western countries

Significant internal retention at continental and country levels

Research themes evolving towards spatial data analytics and geovisualization

Abstract

Academia is profoundly influenced by faculty hiring networks, which serve as critical conduits for knowledge dissemination and the formation of collaborative research initiatives. While extensive research in various disciplines has revealed the institutional hierarchies inherent in these networks, their impacts within GIScience remain underexplored. To fill this gap, this study analyzes the placement patterns of 946 GIScience faculty worldwide by mapping the connections between PhD-granting institutions and current faculty affiliations. Our dataset, which is compiled from volunteer-contributed information, is the most comprehensive collection available in this field. While there may be some limitations in its representativeness, its scope and depth provide a unique and valuable perspective on the global placement patterns of GIScience faculty. Our analysis reveals several influential programs in placing GIScience faculty, with hiring concentrated in the western countries. We examined the diversity index to assess the representation of regions and institutions within the global GIScience faculty network. We observe significant internal retention at both the continental and country levels, and a high level of non-self-hired ratio at the institutional level. Over time, research themes have also evolved, with growing research clusters emphasis on spatial data analytics, cartography and geovisualization, geocomputation, and environmental sciences, etc. These results illuminate the influence of hiring practices on global knowledge dissemination and contribute to promoting academic equity within GIScience and Geography.