Zitat des Monats (24)

23. Januar 2015 von Laborjournal

In einem Kommentar in Times Higher Education macht sich Dorothy Bishop, Professorin für Entwicklungsneuropsychologie an der Universität Oxford, folgende Sorgen um das aktuelle Forschungssystem:

Some top researchers from the past would not have flourished in the current system, because their research was not expensive enough. After a career spanning 40 years, Daniel Kahneman’s elegant experiments led to a 2002 Nobel prize, but they did not require costly equipment or large squads of staff. This kind of research would be devalued in the current system for not generating enough research income.

But there is a deeper concern about changes in our scientific culture. The system of valuing high-impact publications and expensive grants has rewarded those who achieve these goals, and who have a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo. In effect, we may be driving out the very people we need to retain: those who are interested in science as an end in itself, rather than as a way of achieving personal advancement.