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The social and professional profile of natural and social scientists

The social and professional profile of natural and social scientists showed no significant differences in the two groups regarding their socio-demographic and socialisational background. Thus, we can conclude that they were mostly recruited from the same social groups. An elite social background, not necessarily accompanied by early elite educational achievements, characterises both groups of scientists. On the other hand, significant differences are seen in the professional aspects of these groups which also indicate a differentiation of the social and cognitive organisation of the two areas. While an academic institutional structure prevails in the social sciences, the natural sciences are marked by a high proportion of public institutes. Basic research prevails in the latter scientific area, while the social sciences include a greater proportion of applied research, development and mixed-type research. The career patterns in the compared areas also manifest great differences. Thus, an average natural scientist obtains a doctorate at a younger age than the social scientist. His career is more focused on regular research cooperation with international colleagues, and his high integration in the international scientific community is confirmed by the high rate of his reviewing of papers by international colleagues. In contrast to the natural scientist's profile, the Croatian social scientist works on more local projects and reviews more papers by local authors. He is also more often a member of the editorial boards of local journals. In brief, the natural scientists’ international orientation and the local national focus of social scientists are empirically corroborated here.

scientists' social and professional characteristics, natural scientists, social scientists, scientific fields, nutural sciences, social sciences

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