Abstract
A contest for world leadership in science and technology exists. New ways to motivate scientists seem as important to contest outcome as new sources of funds. A framework formed by cross-tabulating question difficulty and answer generality should help to identify the contribution of a research scientist. A reward relationship based on this framework should help to ensure that scientists will work on the most difficult research problems, a necessity for a high quality research program.
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References and Notes
United States Statutes at Large, 1978. Volume 92, Public Law 95–454, Statute 1111.
Even the widely known studies ofPelz andAndrews assessed a scientist's productivity by counting the number of publications, patents or patent applications, and unpublished reports in a five year period. Neither question difficulty nor answer generality played a role in their assessment procedure. D. PELZ F. ANDREWS,Scientists in Organizations, John Wiley, New York, 1966.
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I thank E.Bakuzis, R.McRoberts, E. H. T.Whitten, G.Brown, R.Lee, and R.Monserud for constructive review comments.
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Leary, R.A. A framework for assessing and rewarding a scientist's research productivity. Scientometrics 7, 29–38 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020139