This month our new column, Thought Experiment, considers whether mathematics can answer the deepest perplexities of science, such as evolution and consciousness. Here’s a corollary: Can metrics point to the great discoveries of science, and reward the discoverers?
Underlying this latter question is the profound truth that scientific careers are largely made or squelched by numbers that measure the import of one’s research—particularly, how often one is published in high-impact-factor (IF) journals and how often (and where) one’s papers are cited. That flaws abound in these metrics, is framed by neurobiologist Bjoern Brembs: “Without a moment’s hesitation I would fail any undergraduate who comes with a project using statistics only half as bad as the IF. But it’s good enough to determine who gets promoted and who doesn’t?”
Fortunately, scientometricians are tackling the problems. As laid out in a recent issue of Nature, alternatives to IF and the citation index ...
