The Guardian - article looking at the negative impact of rewarding scientists

This 2013 piece looks at motivations provided to human scientists in the USA and how these reward systems, while producing science that is innovative and "cutting edge," do not provide consistency or help to establish accuracy in the human sciences.  This bias, called the "US-effect" does not adhere to the central beliefs of what science should be: "Science should be about doing good, precise studies. Not necessarily about getting exciting new results every time."

The introduction:  "Scientists who study human behaviour are more likely than average to report exaggerated or eye-catching results if they are based in the United States, according to an analysis of more than 1,000 research papers in psychiatry and genetics. This bias could be due to the research culture in the US, authors of the analysis said, which tends to preferentially reward scientists for the novelty and immediate impact of a piece of work over the quality or its long-term contribution to the field."

Rewarding Human Scientists

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