The Career Consequences of a Mistaken Research Project

The Case of Polywater

Bibliographic Data

ID2823265
AuthorsArthur M Diamond (0000-0002-6428-3666, University of Nebraska at Omaha, corresponding author), Jr Arthur M Diamond
Year2009
Volume68
Issue2
Pages387-411
Publication date2009-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1536-7150.2009.00633.x
OpenAlexW2168821024
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited36

Polywater, one of the most famous mistaken scientific research programs of the past half-century, is used as a case study to examine whether polywater researchers later experienced lower citation counts, or less favorable job mobility. The primary result is that simply writing on polywater, either pro or con, has a negative impact on future citations, in comparison with those who never wrote on polywater. The lifetime value of the lost citations is roughly in the range of $13,000 to $19,000. However writing on polywater did not affect the probability of a scientist leaving university employment

Affect (linguistics) · Citation · Political science · Statistics · Value (mathematics) · Capital Investment and Risk Analysis · History · Law · Mathematics · Psychology · scientometrics and bibliometrics research

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