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their research steps, to detail milestones and to account for all changes in direction.
This approach, if extended too far, is not only detrimental to curiosity-driven
research. It is also counterproductive for applied research, as most practical devices
come from breakthroughs in basic research and would never have been developed
out of the blue,” writes Nobel Prize winner Serge Haroche in Nature
(Haroche, 2012). He adds that there is too much bureaucratic hassle for
scientists, having to spend a great deal of time writing reports instead of
doing research. Consequently, he concludes that the system cries out for
simplification.
8.13.4 Data and Data Citations
Not all scientific results lead to publications. In some fields—space science
and epidemiology are obvious examples—collecting the data is a big
enterprise on its own. These data are then made available in research data
repositories and are sources of citations. Huggett (2014) mentions an
exponential growth of data citations. The topics covered by papers citing
data deposited in data repositories seem nowadays to be centered on
health-related issues. The most important challenges for retrieving such
citations lie in unique identification of data and datasets.
8.13.5 Issues Related to Gender and Minority Groups
The role played by personal features such as gender and age on productiv-
ity and research impact and their relation with career success has been the
topic of quite some published research (e.g., Costas et al., 2010; Bozeman &
Gaughan, 2011; Costas & Bordons, 2011; Abramo et al., 2014).
Science is an institution with an immense inequality in career attain-
ments. This statement holds for all aspects related to science and careers
in science (position, publications, citations, recognition). It is well-known
that minority groups, such as women in science, face an even harder bat-
tle than members of the majority (Etzkowitz et al., 1994). Many studies
have found that female scientists publish at lower rates than male ones.
Yet, Xie and Shauman (1998) found that the sex difference in research
productivity declined from the early 1960s till the 1990s. They attributed
remaining differences to structural positions (their rank within the hierar-
chy of the scientific community), marital status and motherhood and per-
sonal characteristics (collaboration network, choice of research topics).
More than 10 years later, Larivie `re et al. (2011) observed the same
differences in Que ´bec universities. They moreover noted that women