American Professor Julia Lane visited Canberra in May to talk about how to quantify the social impact of science, and be publicly accountable for scientific output. She says:
“This is not my problem, it’s our problem. It’s a global science challenge. What worries me is that what you measure is what you get. If you count publications, then you’re going to get a million publications. It’s like in the Stalinist system – when you had a quota system and you had to produce nails by weight, you got one big nail. If you had a quota system of nails by quantity, you got thousands of tiny little nails. In the capitalist system, if you go to the hardware store, you get a whole wide range of nails. I think we have to respond to the taxpayer request that we document the results of science investments, but we have to be able to do it in a way that preserves and fosters the integrity of science. That’s what science agencies ought to be focusing on.”
The Other Sociologist 