Nurturing Novelty: Toulmin's Greenhouse, Journal Rankings and Knowledge Evolution
反思图尔敏的学术研究过程概念化，探讨期刊排名如何通过正式和非正式使用，在学术机构层级中形成“温室效应”，抑制新概念生长，导致知识树与外部世界脱节，并分析其对学术创新、选择和传播的负面影响。
Reflecting on Toulmin's , 1972 conceptualization of the academic research process , we fast‐forward his thinking to the current climate of academic excellence and associated journal ranking lists . We argue that the formal and informal use of such rankings throughout the hierarchy of research institutions creates an artificial environment within which favoured ‘branches’ of knowledge continue to flourish at the expense of new conceptual saplings . This ‘greenhouse’ effect might result in the creation of a knowledge tree which is increasingly unfit to the external world for which it is intended . We thus step back and examine wider implications of these factors on the broader evolution of knowledge in the research process . In sum , we argue for a Toulminian explanation of the process by which journal ranking lists reduce academic innovation and creativity , bias academic selection and constrain dissemination processes in the academic community .