I thought “networking” was good for my career.
Alas, a Czech researcher has found that beer consumption is negatively related to number of publications and their citation rate (Grim 2008). Grim, an avian ecologist rather than a social scientist, surveyed the beer consumption habits of other avian ecologists working in Czech Republic, a country with very high per capita beer consumption, in 2002 and 2006. Controlling for both age and years since first publication, he found that the more beer the scientists reported drinking, the fewer publications they had. Furthermore, the survey results from 2002 predicted results in 2006 (r2=0.90, F1,9 =6.15, p<0.0001). Thus, he couldn’t test how changes in beer use influenced publication rate (i.e. he couldn’t address the hypothesis that drinking decreases with age with a concomitant increase in publishing). The study also compared a high-consumption region with a lower-consumption region and found a similar relationship; scientists in the high-consumption region published less and had fewer citations. This was not related to age, time since first publication, or funding biases among regions.
The median beer consumption among one study group was 200 liters per year. That’s eight pints per week, every week. That’s way more than I drink. So maybe my beer drinking still falls within the good-for-your-career, networking-over-drinks, helping-relax-among-colleagues-and-superiors-so-as-to-not-feel-intimidated-and-inhibited variety. Let’s hope. Because I am not about to give up beer in the name of science!
Cheers!
Grim, Tomas. 2008. A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists. Oikos. doi: 10.1111/j.2008.0030-1299.16551.x
8 comments:
Which group was that? The high consumption or low consumption region?
high consumption. The low region drank a mere 37.5 L per year.
I can't wait to pass this one around to my department! Did he hypothesize about the effects of sub-field or study organism? Would those studying fish be more likely to drink like fish?
I wonder if the results are skewed by people drowning their sorrows with beer when their papers get rejected?
No wonder he was grim! (Bad pun, I know, but I just couldn't resist).
Confucius supposedly said, "It is not wise for a young man to drink; it is wise for an old man to drink." I guess that would apply to women, also.
And I would think that giving up beer in the name of science - well, I don't see how that could help publication rate. Maybe there is a separate study on that!
hmmm...drinking is probably good for networking if, like most things, done in moderation. In other words, drinking beer at conferences may correlate positively while drinking alone may not? See, there's need for more research - laugh!
I saw that paper too! My response: drink wine. :)
I was curious and looked up his cv. His publication rate is way higher than the averages he showed in the paper, so I hypothesize that he's a smug non-drinker.
Post a Comment