Does accountability legislation threaten integrity of U.S. research enterprise?

Mildred Dresselhaus coauthored a report to be released Feb. 17. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) President Bruce M. Alberts was so concerned by the accountability provision buried in last year's "omnibus" budget legislation that on Jan. 26 he sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew in which he writes that he's "convinced that the new legislation will have serious, unintended consequences for the nation's research enterprise." Speaking at the recent American Associ

Written byEugene Russo
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The following is a preliminary outline of some of the major points of the COSEPUP report due to be released Feb. 17 at a public briefing in the Foundry Building, 1055 Thomas Jefferson St. N.W., room 2004, Washington, D.C. They're taken from the comments of Mildred Dresselhaus, an MIT professor, former AAAS president, COSEPUP member, and report coauthor, who spoke Jan. 23 at the AAAS meeting in Anaheim, Calif. For more information, go to the Web site at www.nas.edu or call the NAS/NAE/IOM/NRC office of news and public information at (202) 334-2138. According to Industry Representatives: Although quantifying results of basic research is not always possible, industry nevertheless supports basic research; in the long run, it pays off and is beneficial to industry. Metrics must be simple, not easily manipulated, and able to drive "constructive behavior." For example, when using indicators such as the number of publications per researcher, the ...

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