Study: “Half-life” of scientists dramatically shorter over time

What’s hot? What’s not?/Niklas Bildhauer, Wikimedia

Scientists are becoming a temporary workforce (“permadocs”):

Following scientists in three fields, the paper’s authors found that it took about five years for a half of a science cohort to leave academic work in 2010 — compared to 35 years in the 1960s.

The researchers also found a “rapid rise” in scientists who spend their careers supporting others and never leading a paper of their own — from about 25 percent of scientists in the 1960s to 60 percent today.

…

A more advanced analysis suggests that for lead authors, number of publications has “consistently been a significant predictor of career longevity. We also see that citations reduced the hazard of exit in the early cohorts.” However, the paper says, more recently, the model is “dominated by publications, with citations having little independent effect.” And in contrast, for supporting authors, publications have “very weak effects until the most recent cohort.”Colleen Flaherty, “Rise of the Science Ph.D. Dropout” at Inside Higher Ed

The need to get a citation—any old how—may help account for peer review scandals and the need to treat fossil concepts like Darwinism as if they were still alive (why risk any kind of dissent when attrition is so high?).

See also: Kim Kardashian’s Paper One Of Top Ten Science Retractions Of 2018

and

Chinese Researchers Who Stray Could Face “Social Penalties”

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