kickstarting as a funding method of scientific research.
″ In Bollen’s system, scientists no longer have to apply; instead, they all receive an equal share of the funding budget annually—some €30,000 in the Netherlands, and $100,000 in the United States—but they have to donate a fixed percentage to other scientists whose work they respect and find important. “Our system is not based on committees’ judgments, but on the wisdom of the crowd,”
Bollen and his colleagues have tested their idea in computer simulations. If scientists allocated 50% of their money to colleagues they cite in their papers, research funds would roughly be distributed the way funding agencies currently do, they showed in a paper last year—but at much lower overhead costs."
Let’s make predictions about what kind of bad incentives will this create. ;)
My guess: If scientics can choose who receives what fraction, they will donate 99% to their friends (who in return will donate 99% to them). If instead it depends on the number of cited works, or something like that, scientists will try to publish research in as many small articles as possible, hoping that multiple articles will be cited instead of one. (But they already do this, don’t they?) If multiple articles from the same author count as one, scientists will trade parts of their research with other scientists, like: “I will let you publish the second half of my article, if you let me publish the second half of your article” (hoping that both parts get cited).
kickstarting as a funding method of scientific research.
″ In Bollen’s system, scientists no longer have to apply; instead, they all receive an equal share of the funding budget annually—some €30,000 in the Netherlands, and $100,000 in the United States—but they have to donate a fixed percentage to other scientists whose work they respect and find important. “Our system is not based on committees’ judgments, but on the wisdom of the crowd,”
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/new-system-scientists-never-have-write-grant-application-again
and an article
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/metascience/funding/bollen-grant-money-allocation-2017.html
Let’s make predictions about what kind of bad incentives will this create. ;)
My guess: If scientics can choose who receives what fraction, they will donate 99% to their friends (who in return will donate 99% to them). If instead it depends on the number of cited works, or something like that, scientists will try to publish research in as many small articles as possible, hoping that multiple articles will be cited instead of one. (But they already do this, don’t they?) If multiple articles from the same author count as one, scientists will trade parts of their research with other scientists, like: “I will let you publish the second half of my article, if you let me publish the second half of your article” (hoping that both parts get cited).