Abstract: How does scientific researchers’ career mobility affect their research output over time? What is the mechanism of its influence? Both questions have never been adequately answered. On the one hand, mobility brings heterogeneous knowledge, research questions, perspectives and methods, which can facilitate research exploration and improve research output. On the other hand, mobility is also accompanied by the cost of adapting to the new environment, which tends to decline with time. Thus, the impact of mobility on research output should change with time. In this study, we analyze curriculum vitae of 847 scientific researchers and their 44,593 papers. The results show that the quantity and quality of scientific researchers’ paper show a short-term decline in the first four years after mobility, but a significant increase from the fifth year on. The positive effect of mobility on paper quality disappears in the sixth year, but the effect on paper quantity is still significant in the sixth year. Compared with paper quality, the positive effect of mobility on quantity lasts longer. The research exploration of scientific researchers due to mobility affects the quantity of papers within six years after the mobility, but can only improve the quality of papers in the first three years after the mobility. The above conclusions enrich the theory of mobility and research output, and have practical value for talent management and policy.

Key words: career mobility, research exploration, scientific research output, temporal effect