Is Science A Case of Wasteful Competition?
认为科学界看似浪费的竞争（多数论文被忽视）实为创造性职业的常态，且社会为此付出的成本极低（仅占世界收入的0.0006%）；更值得关注的是滥用市场原则、将引用和发表作为唯一衡量标准的问题。
Summary Science is a winner‐take‐all profession in which only a few contributions get excessive attention and the large majority of papers receive scant or no attention. This so‐called ‘waste’, together with all the competitive strategies of scientists seeking attention, is part and parcel of every creative profession and not a worrisome fact, as the price society pays for human ingenuity is extremely small: 0.0006 percent of world income goes into the publication of scientific research. The more worrisome features of competition in academic economics do not reveal themselves through ordinary citation or publication statistics or competitive attention seeking strategies, like starting fads and networking. Badly designed uses of market principles, in which citations and publications have become the sole measuring rod of scientific ‘productivity’, deserve more attention instead of the excessive focus on being uncited. To detect the real story of scientific progress, or to judge academic work, ‘reality economics’ or ‘learning by asking and watching’ should complement citation and publication statistics.