Science Is Like A Chicken Coop
Channel: Richard McElreath
Date: 2021-07-23

Plenary delivered to sortee.org conference July 2021.

Abstract: The quality and transparency of scholarship is influenced by
professional incentives. So say we all. Naturally much discussion
focuses on reforming incentives. But reforming scholarly incentives is
not easy, and incentives may matter less than structural and
demographic forces. Using analogies from population biology, I sketch
some problems and opportunities for effective science reform. First,
incentives arise from structure as much as from explicit reward.
Second, incentives are not all—demography and development
matter as well. Third, there are fundamental limits on the power of
incentives when the fates of individuals are largely up to chance.
There are reasons to think reform can succeed, especially if we adopt
a dynamic and structured view of the cultural evolution of scholarly
communities.