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The scientific process, in its ideal form, is elegant: Ask a question, set up an objective test, and get an answer. Repeat. Science is rarely practiced to that ideal. But Copernicus believed in that ideal. So did the rocket scientists behind the moon landing.
But nowadays, our respondents told us, the process is riddled with conflict. Scientists say they're forced to prioritize self-preservation over pursuing the best questions and uncovering meaningful truths.
Today, scientists' success often isn't measured by the quality of their questions or the rigor of their methods. It's instead measured by how much grant money they win, the number of studies they publish, and how they spin their findings to appeal to the public.
Scientists often learn more from studies that fail. But failed studies can mean career death. So instead, they're incentivized to generate positive results they can publish. And the phrase "publish or perish" hangs over nearly every decision. It's a nagging whisper, like a Jedi's path to the dark side.
"Over time the most successful people will be those who can best exploit the system," Paul Smaldino, a cognitive science professor at University of California Merced, says.
Many scientists have had enough. They want to break this cycle of perverse incentives and rewards. They are going through a period of introspection, hopeful that the end result will yield stronger scientific institutions. In our survey and interviews, they offered a wide variety of ideas for improving the scientific process and bringing it closer to its ideal form.
Before we jump in, some caveats to keep in mind: Our survey was not a scientific poll. For one, the respondents disproportionately hailed from the biomedical and social sciences and English-speaking communities.
Many of the responses did, however, vividly illustrate the challenges and perverse incentives that scientists across fields face. And they are a valuable starting point for a deeper look at dysfunction in science today.
The 7 problems identified are:
1) Academia has a huge money problem
2) Too many studies are poorly designed
3) Replicating results is crucial — and rare
4) Peer review is broken
5) Too much science is locked behind paywalls
6) Science is poorly communicated
7) Life as a young academic is incredibly stressful
It seems to me, that, much of this is already known to most scientists. However, this cycle of publish or perish continues unabated. What do you think should be done to change this mindset ?
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12016710/science-challeges-research-funding-peer-review-process
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2016, @05:50AM
Not an English native speaker here, but is it semantically correct in this context to speak of problems facing science? I'd say that science is facing problems.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Zz9zZ on Monday July 18 2016, @06:39AM
I agree with you, but the phrasing isn't far enough off to trigger most people I think. I didn't even notice it until I read your comment.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 3, Touché) by q.kontinuum on Monday July 18 2016, @10:41AM
Can we have a trigger warning, just in case?
"Trigger warning: Articles on this site might contain orthogaphic mistakes , plenks [wikipedia.org] weird or missing punctuation,, grammatically errors and at times some shitty language. Sometimes the semantics and logic is butterfly. However, after surviving this trigger-warning, you should be fine."
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2016, @02:23PM
Bad choice of wording I guess, damn you PC police!
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday July 18 2016, @03:24PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2016, @09:57PM
Exactly. No problem here.
A facing B B facing A.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday July 18 2016, @10:49PM
In this case, sure, but 'facing' is not generally commutative.
Alice faces Bob is not equivalent to Bob faces Alice.