3 ms·

I see this narrative about the current publish-or-perish system quite often. How is the current system of academic incentives different from the system of a fe

• analog31 10y ago
  In my view there are a couple of factors involved. First, it's my impression that it keeps getting more and more competitive. Job security is being whittled away. Second, we've left the century of physics and entered the century of biology. Most of what you read about, regarding the "reproducibility crisis" and so forth, has to do with the medical and behavioral sciences, which have grown in relation to the physical sciences. It's to the point where, when somebody generalizes about "science research," it's likely to be about life science, and a few of us physical scientists realize that we're an insignificant exception. I wouldn't say that life science is better or worse than physical science, but that it introduces a new set of problems that may take a few decades to address. One difference is that the life sciences seem more dependent (for now at least) on weak statistics. Disclosure: I'm a physicist in industry.