The problem of assessing scientific accomplishment: A potential solution

The failure to understand the relationship between organizational setting and scientific accomplishment can result in structures that inhibit rather than promote effective research. Yet, relatively little of a factual nature is known about the effect of the increasingly complex personal and institutional structure within which research is conducted on the nature and quality of scientific work. The major barrier in obtaining such systematic evidence lies in the difficulty of developing techniques to quantitatively and qualitatively measure scientific accomplishment. The experience of the author's research group indicates that the use of summaries, in conjunction with the “panel” technique in which eminent authorities in given fields are used to evaluate scientific accomplishment, may provide a practical solution to the problem of qualitatively assessing recent research accomplishment.