The Role of Reputation in the Recruitment of Scientists

Drawing on the sociology of science literature, we argue that a ‘reputation’ for openness with scientific information may be an important asset for a company to possess with regard to its recruiting efforts. To test this argument, we conducted a survey of over 400 Ph.D. students to determine if a company's support for publication matters in their job search, and what their opinions were regarding a list of twelve US pharmaceutical companies. Our results were that publication support does matter, but not as much as quality of research staff, working conditions, and salary. However, a ranking by our respondents of their top three prospective employers mirrored a ranking of those companies’ publication records suggesting that publication may indeed be a signaling device, thus providing a higher degree of visibility, that prospective employees consider.