Why indirect contributions matter for science and scientists (i)

The contributions of science and research to society are typically made intelligible by measuring direct individual contributions, such as number of journal articles published, journal impact factor, or grant funding acquired. Leo Tiokhin, Karthik Panchanathan, Paul Smaldino and Daniel Lakens argue that this focus on direct individual contributions obscures the significant indirect contributions that scientists make to research as a collective undertaking. In the first of two posts they outline why indirect contributions should be given more weight in research assessment.