Incentive structure
Definition
The set of evaluation and reward mechanisms (explicit and implicit) for scientists and their work. Incentivised areas within the broader structure include hiring and promotion practices, track record for awarding funding, and prestige indicators such as publication in journals with high impact factors, invited presentations, editorships, and awards. It is commonly believed that these criteria are often misaligned with the telos of science, and therefore do not promote rigorous scientific output. Initiatives like DORA aim to reduce the field’s dependency on evaluation criteria such as journal impact factors in favor of assessments based on the intrinsic quality of research outputs.
References:
- Koole, S. L., & Lakens, D. (2012). Rewarding replications: A sure and simple way to improve psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6), 608–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612462586
- Nosek, B. A., Spies, J. R., & Motyl, M. (2012). Scientific utopia: II. Restructuring incentives and practices to promote truth over publishability. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6), 615–631. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612459058
- Schönbrodt, F. (2019). Training students for the Open Science future. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(10), 1031–1031. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0726-z
- Smaldino, P. E., & McElreath, R. (2016). The natural selection of bad science. Royal Society Open Science, 3(9), 160384. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160384
Originally drafted by: Charlotte R. Pennington; Olmo van den Akker
Reviewed by: Helena Hartmann, Flávio Azevedo, Robert M. Ross, Graham Reid, Suzanne L. K. Stewart
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