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Published online 3 October 2007 | Nature 449, 512-513 (2007) | doi:10.1038/449512a

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Researchers criticized for poor time-keeping

National Science Foundation is auditing what happens in the lab — and when.

Rex Dalton

With billions of dollars flowing into US universities, monitoring how researchers spend their time is itself almost a science. Today's active researcher, who teaches, consults and works far beyond a 40-hour week, can be a hard animal to track.

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  • The National Science Foundation and other granting agencies are not funding time, they are funding the potential for scientific achievements. Unfortunately, rather than measure relevant end-points such as science products, granting agencies measure effort expended, as if effort expended somehow translated to science conducted. Any competent scientist recognizes that science is not an assembly-line procedure. If it were, they would not be doing it. The best science is conducted in areas where the uncertainties are greatest, which make it particularly difficult to gauge the time required for achieving success, if success is possible. This is why reporting effort expended is a complete waste of… effort. Wayne E. Thogmartin, Onalaska, WI, USA

    • 11 Oct, 2007
    • Posted by: Wayne Thogmartin