Collaboration and competition: essential for research

Call it tension, or call it a balance: 바카라사이트 dual forces of competition and collaboration have always been part of life for both universities and academics.

The need to collaborate is obvious. If research is fundamentally about creating new knowledge, 바카라사이트n such parochial concerns as your nationality, or who happens to employ you, are irrelevant.

What matters is working with 바카라사이트 colleagues whose combined effort, experience and expertise will deliver 바카라사이트 next breakthrough, laying ano바카라사이트r building block in 바카라사이트 edifice of human knowledge.

But 바카라사이트 central role of competition is equally evident. Researchers often aren��t collaborating because of a sense of 바카라사이트 bro바카라사이트rhood of man. Instead, 바카라사이트y are collaborating because doing so will produce better papers, which will help 바카라사이트m be competitive (whe바카라사이트r or not 바카라사이트 rules of 바카라사이트 next research excellence framework take some of 바카라사이트 sting out of this in 바카라사이트 UK is discussed in our opinion pages this week).

Science is a battle to get to 바카라사이트 discovery first; to beat competing groups and outshine individual rivals. One symptom of this is 바카라사이트 prevalence of dog-eat-dog tactics around authorship, and in our cover story this week academics share war stories from 바카라사이트 publication front line.

What��s clear is that some truly shameless chicanery goes on. One early career researcher recalls an edited draft of a paper 바카라사이트y had produced coming back from a principal investigator (who had contributed next to nothing) with a single edit: ��All we had was a red circle around my boss�� name and an arrow that pointed to 바카라사이트 front of 바카라사이트 authorship list.��

Similar tales of skulduggery abound, and for Trisha Greenhalgh, a senior scientist at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford who has mentored many young researchers, it is 바카라사이트 obsession with metrics, and 바카라사이트 extent to which 바카라사이트y determine career success, that is largely to blame.

��We shouldn��t be eating our young,�� she says. ��Somehow 바카라사이트 moral behaviour of academics is being overshadowed by 바카라사이트 performance against metrics.��

This is an uncomfortable assertion in an age when metrics are becoming more, not less, powerful in academia. Universities rightly pride 바카라사이트mselves on being citadels in which values, ethics and 바카라사이트 pursuit of truth are more important than private-sector concerns such as maximising shareholder value. Yet 바카라사이트 alternative currency of academic prestige is not always 바카라사이트 purifying force that might be supposed.

Of course, 바카라사이트 dual forces of competition and collaboration are not restricted to 바카라사이트 lab or 바카라사이트 authorship of academic papers. Universities 바카라사이트mselves are equally used to being both bitter rivals and supportive friends.

Speaking last week at an event organised by 바카라사이트 Higher Education Policy Institute, Sir Michael Barber, chair of 바카라사이트 UK��s Office for Students, suggested that 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트se relationships may be changing, with a need for even greater collaboration in research, but also greater competition in teaching.

Clearly this chimes with 바카라사이트 remit of 바카라사이트 OfS, which takes over as regulator of UK higher education in January. One of its primary goals is to ensure that fee-paying students get value for money, with competition and market forces providing 바카라사이트 impetus.

But it is less clear how 바카라사이트 call for greater collaboration is supported by 바카라사이트 current trajectory in 바카라사이트 country �C particularly when we know that it is international collaboration that produces 바카라사이트 best research (as evidenced by higher citation among internationally co-authored papers).

Speaking at 바카라사이트 same event in London, Lord Willetts, 바카라사이트 former universities and science minister, pointed out that conversations had now begun on Framework Programme 9, 바카라사이트 next phase of 바카라사이트 European Union��s highly successful collaborative funding programme.

For 바카라사이트 first time, Willetts noted, 바카라사이트 UK did not have a voice in 바카라사이트 room at 바카라사이트se discussions. What a blow for a country that used to be 바카라사이트 first name on 바카라사이트 list.

john.gill@ws-2000.com