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The risk of novelty

Published on
March 9, 2017
Last updated
March 9, 2017

Re the news article ā€œYoung academics’ research ā€˜elegant but not interestingā€™ā€ (23 February), in which an emeritus professor bemoans the increasing ā€œconservatismā€ of young scholars’ papers.

A colleague of mine in another department says that if you are not rewriting the older academic stuff and patting one another on the back for ā€œa job well doneā€ by rehashing the old stuff, you will never get published in his field.

He was rejected recently with new research on a topic that disputed an old theory, being told that it was ā€œtoo newā€ an idea to have merit, even though the proof was there in the data.

So, I think it depends perhaps on the field, too.

VintageHippie78
Via timeshighereducation.com


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