IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v538y2016i7626d10.1038_538453a.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fewer numbers, better science

Author

Listed:
  • Rinze Benedictus

    (Rinze Benedictus is staff adviser at the University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and a PhD candidate at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.)

  • Frank Miedema

    (Frank Miedema is professor of immunology, and dean and vice-chairman of the executive board of the University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands. He is one of the founders of Science in Transition.)

  • Mark W. J. Ferguson

    (Mark W. J. Ferguson is director-general of Science Foundation Ireland, and chief scientific adviser to the Government of Ireland.)

Abstract

Scientific quality is hard to define, and numbers are easy to look at. But bibliometrics are warping science — encouraging quantity over quality. Leaders at two research institutions describe how they do things differently.

Suggested Citation

  • Rinze Benedictus & Frank Miedema & Mark W. J. Ferguson, 2016. "Fewer numbers, better science," Nature, Nature, vol. 538(7626), pages 453-455, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:538:y:2016:i:7626:d:10.1038_538453a
    DOI: 10.1038/538453a
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/538453a
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/538453a?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth Troncoso & Daniel A. López & René Ruby-Figueroa & Dieter Koch & Ricardo Reich, 2024. "Does Quality Matter? Quality Assurance in Research for the Chilean Higher Education System," Publications, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Alessandro Margherita & Gianluca Elia & Claudio Petti, 2022. "What Is Quality in Research? Building a Framework of Design, Process and Impact Attributes and Evaluation Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Mark Bukowski & Sandra Geisler & Thomas Schmitz-Rode & Robert Farkas, 2020. "Feasibility of activity-based expert profiling using text mining of scientific publications and patents," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 579-620, May.
    4. Corsini, Alberto & Pezzoni, Michele & Visentin, Fabiana, 2022. "What makes a productive Ph.D. student?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    5. Matthew J Michalska-Smith & Stefano Allesina, 2017. "And, not or: Quality, quantity in scientific publishing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, June.
    6. Rafols, Ismael & Stirling, Andy, 2020. "Designing indicators for opening up evaluation. Insights from research assessment," SocArXiv h2fxp, Center for Open Science.
    7. Fecher, Benedikt & Fräßdorf, Mathis & Hebing, Marcel & Wagner, Gert G., 2017. "Replikationen, Reputation und gute wissenschaftliche Praxis," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 68(2-3), pages 154-158.
    8. Rodrigo Costas & Thomas Franssen, 2018. "Reflections around ‘the cautionary use’ of the h-index: response to Teixeira da Silva and Dobránszki," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(2), pages 1125-1130, May.
    9. Faiza Qayyum & Muhammad Tanvir Afzal, 2019. "Identification of important citations by exploiting research articles’ metadata and cue-terms from content," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(1), pages 21-43, January.
    10. Xue Wei & Chen Liang & Wenhui Chen, 2022. "Exploring Current Status and Evolutionary Trends on the Paid Use of State-Owned Forest Resources in China: A Bibliometric Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, May.
    11. Ádám Kun, 2018. "Publish and Who Should Perish: You or Science?," Publications, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-16, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:538:y:2016:i:7626:d:10.1038_538453a. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.