Bias against Novelty in Science: A Cautionary Tale

摘要

Research based on an unusual or novel approach may lead to important breakthroughs in science, but peer evaluators are often overly cautious in evaluating such work, Jian Wang, Reinhilde Veugelers, and Paula Stephan find in Bias against Novelty in Science: A Cautionary Tale for Users of Bibliometric Indicators (NBER Working Paper No. 22180). They argue that this excess caution represents a flaw in the traditional means of evaluating research, and that this flaw has far-reaching implications for the allocation of resources.