How to Judge a Successful Research Career

Abstract

In the January 8th, 1990 issue of McLean's magazine (Burning, 1990, p.8), readers were informed that "Darryl Strawberry (a right fielder for the New York Mets) ... intends to renegotiate his terms of employment. Strawberry favours a four-year pact worth $13.8 million ... that, or he will depart Shea Stadium at the earliest opportunity." During the 1990 baseball season, Darryl Strawberry's batting average was .277 (The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1991). If we examine this average from a statistical perspective, we can see that he got a hit about two or three times out of every 10 that he got up to the plate (of course, this calculation ignores the times that he got onto base because of walks, etc.). This is a success rate of 20-30%. Alternatively, it represents a failure rate of 70-80%. Nevertheless, by baseball standards, this man is an achiever, commanding a salary that many of us will not make over our entire working careers. As a baseball fan, I know that any player who bats around .300 is going to have one of the highest, if not the highest, batting averages on his team and will command one of the largest salaries on the team. (He is used when referring to professional baseball players; 100% are male. She is used when referring to nurses; 97% are female). However, when I started my research training, one of the things that I did not know was that an academic research career is judged by these same standards, i.e., a 20-30% success rate coupled with a 70-80% failure rate. These rates are clearly evident when one examines the statistics for the success of first time grant applications submitted to major funding bodies. For example, in November 1990 the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC) reported a 30% success rate for its new applications (September 1989 competition) (Slotin & Hetenyi, 1990). This funding rate for new grants is not unique to Canada. During a recent invited symposium on U.S.