A carrot no more

Dorothy Bishop hits the mark on all the negative consequences of our short-sighted research culture (“The big grant money. The big papers. Are we missing anything?”, Opinion, 15 January). I constantly notice how many papers from lowly specialist journals are cited as the basis for performing studies published in others of higher impact, or as justification of results. Like research metrics, we bought into the system and now the numbers are used as sticks to beat us by the corporate cabals who run our universities and government bureaucrats who can only read the bottom line of an Excel spreadsheet.

Tom Gardiner
Via timeshighereducation.co.uk