<ul><li>A new study reveals that scientists who switch research fields face a drop in the impact of their work, known as the 'pivot penalty'.</li><li>The analysis conducted by a team at Northwestern University analyzed over 25 million scientific papers and 1.7 million US patents to identify and quantify the impact of research pivots.</li><li>Researchers found that larger pivots away from a scientist's previous work resulted in fewer citations and lower chances of producing high-impact papers.</li><li>Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers who shifted their focus to COVID-19-related research also experienced the pivot penalty, indicating the challenges and costs of changing research directions.</li></ul>

Thinking of switching research fields? Beware the citation ‘pivot penalty’ revealed by new study

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