The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Most fundamental, encouraging diversity– of institutions,funding mechanisms, and research approaches– is vitalto prevent innovation-killing conformity. Ecosystems always require diversity for resilience. Such disruption can come not only from the new mega-rich techgiants, but also from crowdsourcing, and tech-wealthy benefactors.
To support this effort, we could encourage a new breed of science curatorsto explore the terrainof scientific knowledge more systematically, looking beyond trending topics to identifysurprising but promising linkages between research, as well as conflicting results that meritfurther inquiry.
Finally, the one-dimensional citation metric should be complemented by additional indices that provide a more comprehensive, multifaceted assessment of scientific work. Only then can the huge number of new minds that join the ranks of the world’s scientific researchers each year actually contribute meaningfully to the advancement of science and, in turn, the progress of humankind.
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Jeremy J.Baumberg, a nano-scientist at the University of Cambridge, is the author of `The Secret Life of Science: How Science Really Works and Why it Matters’.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018.
