Matthew effect (in science)
Definition
Named for the ‘rich get richer; poor get poorer’ paraphrase of the Gospel of Matthew. Eminent scientists and early-career researchers with a prestigious fellowship are disproportionately attributed greater levels of credit and funding for their contributions to science while relatively unknown or early-career researchers without a prestigious fellowship tend to get disproportionately little credit for comparable contributions. The impact is a substantial cumulative advantage that results from modest initial comparative advantages (and vice versa).
References:
- Bol, T., de Vaan, M., & van de Rijt, A. (2018). The Matthew effect in science funding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(19), 4887–4890. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719557115
- Bornmann, L., Ganser, C., Tekles, A., & Leydesdorff, L. (2019). Does the hα index reinforce the Matthew effect in science? Agent-based simulations using Stata and R. arXiv preprint https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.11052.
- Merton, R. K. (1968). The Matthew Effect in Science. Science, 159(3810), 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.159.3810.56
Originally drafted by: Tamara Kalandadze
Reviewed by: Bradley Baker, Tsvetomira Dumbalska, Mahmoud Elsherif, Matt Jaquiery, Charlotte R. Pennington
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