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Abstracting the Lab • SftP Magazine

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Considering how science has been practiced in the preceding four centuries, it was only a matter of time before scientists began using the revered quantitative methodology to measure their own “success.” In 2005, physicist Jorge Hirsch proposed the h-index to quantify an author’s impact.1 Since then, the use of h has become pervasive—much like that of the impact factor for scientific journals circa 1975.2 These metrics, along with other variations that serve to measure and compare, have dominated academic life. “Publish or perish,” repeats your advisor. But not only that, the publication has to make an impact. You’re climbing the academic ladder to a better place—finding a prestigious lab to do your postdoc, starting your own lab at a premier institution, getting tenure… And so, every couple of years your research productivity and impact are judged and compared with your peers. Such a unitary prescription for scientific success (or survival) leaves very little room for anything other t

Organize the Lab: Theory and Practice Chapter 1 Abstracting the Lab or: How I Learned to Become a Cog and Reproduce the System By Calvin Wu C onsidering how science has been practiced in the preceding four centuries, it was only a matter of time before scientists began using the revered quantitative methodology to measure their own “success.” In 2005, physicist Jorge Hirsch proposed the h- index to quantify an author’s impact. 1 Since then, the use of h has become pervasive—much like that of the impact factor for scientific journals circa 1975. 2 These metrics, along with other variations that

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