Scientists worry way too much about the impacts of our work. We want our papers to mean something, for people to really want to read them. Of course, the true test of whether your paper is important is that future papers cite you as a reference.
What makes one paper cited by everyone and another fall into obscurity? Well, there are all kinds of theories. Maybe it's how high-impact the journal is - after all, a Science paper is better than obscure journal, right? Some have even suggested it's a matter of size - of your reference list, that is.
But now, John Parker, a post-doc at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the UCSB, and his colleagues have noticed a very interesting trend thanks to their research on the social habits of the most highly cited researchers in ecology and environmental science. What did the big wigs all have in common? Well, they drank. A lot.
The average American has around 5.5 drinks per week. But the top cited scientists, as it turns out, drink 7, more than two drinks about the norm. More than half of them down 10 or more per week - double the national standard.
Not that this is news to anyone who has been out for beers with a few marine biologists. We are known for one thing - you know, other than having an impeccable sense of humor, unfathomable good looks and incredible scientific brains, of course.
Not that this means that scientists get cited more because they're heavy drinkers. I'm always the first to remind you that correlation does not mean causation.
But, to be fair, it's also not the first time the connection has been drawn between drinking and being cited more - a paper in 2009 found that the more per capita a country drank, the higher it's citations per paper were. Does this say something about heavy drinking scientists? Or just countries that enjoy a good brew?
It certainly seems like there's no reason NOT to have a few beers after a long day in the lab - especially Friday. And on that note...
Citations:
Parker, J., Lortie, C., & Allesina, S. (2010). Characterizing a scientific elite: the social characteristics of the most highly cited scientists in environmental science and ecology Scientometrics, 85 (1), 129-143 DOI: 10.1007/s11192-010-0234-4
Lortie, C. (2009). Letter to the Editor: A global comment on scientific publications, productivity, people, and beer Scientometrics, 84 (2), 539-541 DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0077-z
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I'm curious whether the increased drinking is really just a measure of social networking? Chances are they're not all solo drinkers, so drinking with colleagues could enhance the citations for their work because more people will here about it. Another possibility could be that they're self medicating for high stress and the increased drinking is representative of their personality type and/or punishing work schedule. But if it's just the beer it begs the question: Lager or IPA?
My experience from both conferences and academia tells me that the best networking happens at the bar.
Another explanation for both these phenomena is that these are social scientists conducting ethnographic research under cover in the bar... Actually, in my experience, the relaxed bar room atmosphere not only helps us make social connections but also, talking ideas can help one join the dots - connecting ideas or patterns that previously didn't fit because we were too close to them.
^^ agree with the above comments. There was a talk on TED by Steven Johnson ("Where Good Ideas Come From") highlighting the importance of social networking/communication in promoting the spread of new ideas... somehow your article reminds me of that, since drinking is heavily associated with social networking. Now I have a good reason to hit the bar!