The Citation Hierarchy

 


The fallacy of the claim that researchers are rational being is most apparent when they socialise, e.g. in conferences etc. The difference in the the status enjoyed by various people is very apparent. For the rest of the world, money, position, physical beauty or power are the currencies based on which the social status of an individual is measured. In the intellectual world, it is reputation. And metrics like citation count, publication count, h-index, i-index, *-index, this-ranking, that-ranking, amount of research grants etc. etc. are the proxies for academic quality and impact.

What we miss understanding is that real impact is untraceable. It could also be in the number of lives you deeply touched through your teaching, research and conduct. It could be in the germ of an idea that mutates in fertile minds and spreads through them.

Next time, you meet a researcher, don't sneak into his website to check what or who he is through those numbers. Instead, strike a conversation. If you have time, read what he has written. You will know his depth in a minute. Of course, that's assuming that you yourself have the depth and intellectual ingenuity to make a good judgement.

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