Pierwsze dwudziestolecie XXI w., a zwłaszcza jego druga dekada, to okres dynamicznego przyrostu liczby geografów transportu posiadających stopień doktora. Znacznie gorzej wyglądała sytuacja z samodzielnymi pracownikami naukowymi. W kontekście tej grupy nie było widać tak silnej dynamiki rozwoju nowych kadr, jak w przypadku zakończonych procedur doktoryzacji. Spośród osób awansowanych w badanym okresie na doktorów habilitowanych obecnie tylko jedna pracuje na stanowisku profesora nadzwyczajnego, jedna opuściła polską naukę, a pozostali sukcesywnie uzyskiwali tytuły profesorskie. Widoczna była także silna polaryzacja przestrzenna miejsc, gdzie prowadzono procedury awansowe. Doktoryzowaniem zajmowało się 11 instytucji, jednak blisko 4/5 doktoratów obroniono przed radami naukowymi sześciu z nich. Jednocześnie prawie 1/3 promocji doktorskich miała miejsce w Instytucie Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej Wydziału Biologii i Nauk o Ziemi UJ oraz w Instytucie Geografii i Zagospodarowania Przestrzennego PAN. W tej ostatniej jednostce odbyły się wszystkie procedury habilitacyjne z zakresu geografii transportu. W artykule zwraca się uwagę, że obecna struktura wiekowa badaczy omawianej subdyscypliny jest dość korzystna, niepokoi natomiast jej wymiar pod względem stopni i tytułów naukowych. Małoliczna jest zwłaszcza grupa doktorów habilitowanych, co znacznie zniekształca kształt piramidy ją odzwierciadlającej. W przyszłości może to zaowocować problemami następstwa pokoleń.

Scientists’ promotions in Polish transport geography in 2001-2021

The first twenty years of the 21st century, especially its second decade, was a period of dynamic growth in the number of transport geographers PhD promotions. The situation with independent academics (in Polish scientific system habilitated doctors and professors) was much worse. There was no such strong dynamics of the development of new staff as in the case of completed PhD procedures. Only one of habilitated doctors promoted in the analysed period is currently working as an associate professor, next one has quit Polish science, but the others have successively obtained professorships. A strong spatial polarization of the places where promotion procedures were carried out was also visible. The PhD processes were carried out by 11 institutions, but nearly 4/5 of them took place before the scientific councils of six of them. At the same time, almost 1/3 of the promotion took place at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management of the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences of the Jagiellonian University and the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organisation of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IGSO PAS). Additionally all habilitation procedures in the field of transport geography were completed in IGSO PAS I. The article points out that the current age structure of researchers of the sub-discipline is quite favourable, while its distortion in terms of research degrees and titles is worrying, where the group of habilitated doctors is disturbingly small, which means that a significant distortion of the pyramid reflecting it is visible. In the future, this may result in problems of the succession of generations.

Keywords: Polish transport geographers, scientific promotions, scienceometry

The first twenty years of the 21st century, especially its second decade, was a period of dynamic growth in the number of transport geographers PhD promotions. The situation with independent academics (in Polish scientific system habilitated doctors and professors) was much worse. There was no such strong dynamics of the development of new staff as in the case of completed PhD procedures. Only one of habilitated doctors promoted in the analysed period is currently working as an associate professor, next one has quit Polish science, but the others have successively obtained professorships. A strong spatial polarization of the places where promotion procedures were carried out was also visible. The PhD processes were carried out by 11 institutions, but nearly 4/5 of them took place before the scientific councils of six of them. At the same time, almost 1/3 of the promotion took place at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management of the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences of the Jagiellonian University and the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organisation of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IGSO PAS). Additionally all habilitation procedures in the field of transport geography were completed in IGSO PAS I. The article points out that the current age structure of researchers of the sub-discipline is quite favourable, while its distortion in terms of research degrees and titles is worrying, where the group of habilitated doctors is disturbingly small, which means that a significant distortion of the pyramid reflecting it is visible. In the future, this may result in problems of the succession of generations.