Give researchers a lifetime word limit

Brian C. Martinson imagines how rationing the number of publications a scientist could put out might improve the scientific literature... Imagine a world in which each scientist is allotted a fixed number of words that they can publish over her or his career. I’m not the first person to suggest this: the Australian writer Michael McGirr has proposed a word limit for every person.

What would happen? Might authorship regain its original purpose?

Nature, Brian C. Martinson, 2017: "Lifetime limits would create a natural incentive to do research that matters. Researchers would have to ask themselves, “Is this project I’m pursuing worth the words it will cost me?” I see several articles in my own CV that did not contribute much knowledge to the world.

Brian C. Martinson imagines how rationing the number of publications a scientist could put out might improve the scientific literature... Imagine a world in which each scientist is allotted a fixed number of words that they can publish over her or his career. I’m not the first person to suggest this: the Australian writer Michael McGirr has proposed a word limit for every person.

What would happen? Might authorship regain its original purpose?

Nature, Brian C. Martinson, 2017: "Lifetime limits would create a natural incentive to do research that matters. Researchers would have to ask themselves, “Is this project I’m pursuing worth the words it will cost me?” I see several articles in my own CV that did not contribute much knowledge to the world.