Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
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Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#2[deleted]
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#3In my personal experience the main problem with scientific research today is caused by publication counts representing the sole metric for academic success.
Research is 'optimized' for publications and segmented according to conference schedules. That in itself I consider detrimental to the research effort. However the major damage in terms of advancing resarch in my opinion is caused by the induced tendency of scholars to closely stick to the main stream paradigms, trends and topics. Naturally it is much 'harder' to do research that does not directly build up on the current state of the art. Such research usually takes much longer and therefore results in a lower publication frequency. Secondly it is carrying a much higher risk of not bringing about positive results. Thirdly I deem the chances for acceptance in peer reviewed conferences and journals to be much lower. Such venues are often biased towards current main stream research trends.In my observation there is also an aversion against research that questions the state of the art. People who have spent years or decades to master every aspect of the state of the art have a strong incentive to shoot down anything potentially disruptive.
As such the incentives are misaligned with regard to the aim of science of figuring out new things.
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#4Start big: "scientific research needs to be disrupted!" (a trendy word) How? At the bottom: "government agencies funding research should require that those submitting papers must provide their research free of charge".
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#5In my personal experience the main problem with scientific research today is caused by publication counts representing the sole metric for academic success. Research is 'optimized' for publications and segmented according to conference schedules. That in itself I consider detrimental to the research effort. However the major damage in terms of advancing resarch in my opinion is caused by the induced tendency of schol…
> In my personal experience the main problem with scientific research today is caused by publication counts representing the sole metric for academic success.
It also leads to bloat in the literature: People learn the "least publishable increment" and go publish that.
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#6Unless scientists and researchers start to put the interests of collaboration and “open science” ahead of their desire to be promoted or win tenure the system will not change
This is the main problem because most won't.
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#7To disrupt scientific research you need to change the way that science is funded. Science is not for-profit, unlike the disrupted industries mentioned here. If you have to show how determining how a flagella works is going to produce revenue, then you are going to stifle science in another way.
Good science is slow, deliberate, and motivated by open-ended questions and discovery, not by end points.
We need to fund the process of science, and make sure that the knowledge gained is shared publicly. No other disruption is necessary.
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#8Unless scientists and researchers start to put the interests of collaboration and “open science” ahead of their desire to be promoted or win tenure the system will not change This is the main problem because most won't.
Yea, the real question is how to show their efforts in an open system so they can get tenure without fear of being "scooped" by being open
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#9A very practical problem with making data available publicly is privacy. This is likely not going to be an issue for data coming out of the LHSC, but comes into play in CS research. I know a bunch of researchers who work with large datasets that have user locations, cell tower communication, social network data, etc. Of course, even researchers work with data that is annonymized. But almost nothing is truly anonymous. You have to assume that researchers working with the data are going to be sensible about how they use it. If not, they will face serious consequences (i.e. lose their jobs and hurt their reputations). A dataset made public typically cannot be controlled in this manner.
Researchers must also go through IRBs (independent review boards) at their institution prior to engaging in research that deals with human subjects. If the collected data is going to be made available publicly, it makes the process more arduous.
Btw ... there is a decent dataset repository for CS researchers doing mobile computing called Crawdad.
Re: Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted
#10Unless scientists and researchers start to put the interests of collaboration and “open science” ahead of their desire to be promoted or win tenure the system will not change This is the main problem because most won't.
I absolutely would if I could do it and still get funded. I'd love to share everything openly. Just pay my bills as I do it.
Currently, science is funded based on individual results. You can't blame folk for wanting to be promoted or to win tenure.