Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Study Attempts To Predict Scientists' Career Success

Posted by samzenpus on from the what's-in-the-cards dept.

First time accepted submitter nerdyalien writes "In the academic world, it's publish or perish; getting papers accepted by the right journals can make or break a researcher's career. But beyond a cushy tenured position, it's difficult to measure success. In 2005, physicist Jorge Hurst suggested the h-index, a quantitative way to measure the success of scientists via their publication record. This score takes into account both the number and the quality of papers a researcher has published, with quality measured as the number of times each paper has been cited in peer-reviewed journals. H-indices are commonly considered in tenure decisions, making this measure an important one, especially for scientists early in their career. However, this index only measures the success a researcher achieved so far; it doesn't predict their future career trajectory. Some scientists stall out after a few big papers; others become breakthrough stars after a slow start. So how we estimate what a scientist's career will look like several years down the road? A recent article in Nature suggests that we can predict scientific success, but that we need to take into account several attributes of the researcher (such as the breadth of their research)."

5 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Teaching? by theNAM666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ah, nah, what was I thinking. Whether someone produces future scientists or students who know science, doesn't matter one bit. Let's continue to fetishize publication, and the system of duchies it rests on!

    1. Re:Teaching? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's really little that an academic can add to the excellent textbooks already published...

      You have obviously never:

      a) Had to learn from papers, rather than textbooks
      b) Had a GOOD lecture

      If you need to get an up-to-date view of a field have a "lecture-ised" literature review from someone who knows what they are talking about can save you literal weeks of sifting through papers. All the best lecture courses don't teach textbooks but go through the primary literature and this takes a good academic to do.

    2. Re:Teaching? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Or better yet, teach yourself. Science classes are for memorizing facts, which is not exactly science. I'm skeptical that one can really teach a roomful of people how to think scientifically in 3 hours a week for a semester.

      Actual knowledge is not the reason to go to school - that piece of paper you get at the end, which confirms you possess said knowledge (or rather, confirms you paid for said piece of paper), which is essential to getting a job in about 90% of the market, is.

      There are a lot of we 'self-taught' scientists, engineers, etc, who get stuck with entry-level wages because we lack the aforementioned written credentials, actual skills and know-how notwithstanding.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    3. Re:Teaching? by The+Dancing+Panda · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm just going to put this out there: you're wrong. A good lecture should produce students who want to learn more about the subjects on their own. Not because they have to to pass your class, but because they want to because you made the subject interesting. If you're not doing that, but rather just telling the kids all they need to know to pass your test, it's not a good lecture, it's a good study session.

  2. Excluding Patent Clerks by strangeattraction · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes if your had the top thesis advisor, went to the best schools and work in a lab with good funding you do well. What a surprise! This would probably ignore patent clerks that discover Relativity however. I recall one paper that claimed to be able to predict your whereabouts by some kind of cell phone info. I can predict it without any data. %90 of the population spends %90 of the of their time within 1/4 mile of their place of residence or employment/school etc. Wow that was hard. Can I get a grant for that?