Exploring new ways of recognition and reward in science

Siroon Bekkering from Radboudumc reflected on the perception of the profession ‘scientist’ in a blog on the Radboudumc website. Siroon talks about an ‘extra (darker) layer’ that is added what is means to be a scientist. She states that science has becomemore and more dependent on ‘impact’, ‘benefits’ and other measurable things. Studying topics ‘because you want to know how things work’ isn’t a thing anymore. You need papers, preferably with high impact, write personal grants, but also (inter)national collaborations and your name on collaborative grants. You need to go abroad for a while, increase your network, be an editor at a journal, organize conferences and oh, don’t forget the supervision of (PhD) students, teaching classes and an amazing media presence. Scientist need to do it all and need to do it perfectly.

But there is also good news: Dora is here! In this article Siroon explains how the San Fransisco Declearation On Research Assessment (DORA for short) is a starting point for a new way of looking to recognition and rewarding system.

“If science becomes a collaboration between all kinds of different people, we can emphasize each other’s strengths, use it for the team and not try to do everything perfectly ourselves. That will save us time, lift some of the pressure and hopefully will lead us to do more of what we love: explore.”