Scientists have been sizing up their colleagues since science began. But it was American psychologist James McK-een Cattell who first popularized the idea that systematically ranking scientists by 'performance' could provide benefits beyond scratching the itch of professional envy. In the 1910 second edition to his 1906 work, American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory, he argued that tracking performance over time could assist the progress of research. "It is surely time for scientific men to apply scientific method to determine the circumstances that promote or hinder the advancement of science," he wrote.
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