Doctores, incentivos de titulación e impacto en la investigación: Un panorama general de los profesores con doctorado en el sistema ecuatoriano de educación superior  <span class="so-article-trans-title" dir="auto"> Translated title: Doctors, degree incentives and impact on research: An overview of professors with doctorates in the Ecuadorian higher education system </span>

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Abstract

RESUMEN Este artículo presenta un panorama descriptivo y explicativo sobre el crecimiento del número de profesores con título de doctorado en el sistema ecuatoriano de educación superior, desde el año 2013, así como los incentivos para la titulación y su impacto en la investigación. Se hace una revisión general de la literatura que considera el impacto positivo de un mayor número de doctores en la educación superior y se evalúa la evolución de su número a partir de las obligaciones legales y los incentivos creados por el marco legal de la formación superior. Se presenta una descripción general, tomando en cuenta su procedencia, las universidades en las que trabajan y en las que estudiaron, y los títulos obtenidos. Se analiza además la oferta según campos de estudio y se propone un modelo de regresión para explicar y evaluar su impacto en la investigación. Finalmente, se concluye que las políticas públicas han creado un medio favorable (incluyendo incentivos perversos) para la titulación doctoral y la recepción de profesores de varios países, al tiempo que se evidencia una relación positiva entre el número de doctores y la investigación con impacto internacional.

Translated abstract

ABSTRACT This paper makes a descriptive and explanatory overview of the growth of number of university professors with a doctoral degree in the Ecuadorian Higher Education System, since 2013. It analyzes the legal framework and institutional incentives for the growth in the number of professors with a doctoral degree and includes a general review of the literature that considers their positive impact on the higher education system. This paper makes a general description which includes variables such as tenure, nationality, the doctoral program's country and university, and the degree obtained. It then puts forward statistical regression models to explain and evaluate the impact of professors with a doctoral degree on research. It concludes that public policy has created a favorable environment, including perverse incentives, to pursue and obtain a doctoral degree and for welcoming professors from several countries. Additionally, it finds a positive correlation between the number of professors with a doctoral degree and the amount of research measured by number of indexed publications.

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The Matthew Effect in Science: The reward and communication systems of science are considered.

R K Merton (1968)

This account of the Matthew effect is another small exercise in the psychosociological analysis of the workings of science as a social institution. The initial problem is transformed by a shift in theoretical perspective. As originally identified, the Matthew effect was construed in terms of enhancement of the position of already eminent scientists who are given disproportionate credit in cases of collaboration or of independent multiple discoveries. Its significance was thus confined to its implications for the reward system of science. By shifting the angle of vision, we note other possible kinds of consequences, this time for the communication system of science. The Matthew effect may serve to heighten the visibility of contributions to science by scientists of acknowledged standing and to reduce the visibility of contributions by authors who are less well known. We examine the psychosocial conditions and mechanisms underlying this effect and find a correlation between the redundancy function of multiple discoveries and the focalizing function of eminent men of science-a function which is reinforced by the great value these men place upon finding basic problems and by their self-assurance. This self-assurance, which is partly inherent, partly the result of experiences and associations in creative scientific environments, and partly a result of later social validation of their position, encourages them to search out risky but important problems and to highlight the results of their inquiry. A macrosocial version of the Matthew principle is apparently involved in those processes of social selection that currently lead to the concentration of scientific resources and talent (50).