Bang not based on buck

摘要

Grant size does not strongly predict scientific impact, according to a study published in PLOS ONE. The authors used four measures - publications, citations, highly cited papers and citations of the most-highly cited paper - to score the impact of 374 researchers funded between 2002 and 2006 by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Grant sizes explained less than 30% of the variation (J.-M. Fortin and D. J. Currie PLOS ONE 8, e65263; 2013). Co-author David Currie, a biologist at the University of Ottawa, says, "Some very poorly funded people manage to do a great deal."