Early-career researchers do more ‘disruptive’ science than veterans

Experienced researchers are more likely to hold onto ideas from the past than those at the beginning of their careers, an analysis finds. Credit: RapidEye/Getty Experienced researchers are less likely to produce ‘disruptive’ science than are those just starting their careers, finds an analysis of the scientific papers published by 12.5 million researchers over 60 years. The authors discovered that older researchers are better at connecting existing ideas to produce new knowledge than are younger researchers. But those with more experience are worse at achieving massive breakthroughs that overhaul, or disrupt, entire fields of research — as happened with innovations such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. Are groundbreaking science discoveries becoming harder to find? The analysis, which was published today in Science 1 , also concludes that, as their careers progress, scientists are more likely to cite older papers than newer ones. This phenomenon, which the authors call the nostalgia effect, can hold back scientific innovation, they say, because scientists get hung up on ideas from the past and are not as receptive to new developments. The finding isn’t surprising — it aligns with previous studies documenting a decades-long global decline in disruptive science as the scientific workforce ages, says Russell Funk, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis who was not involved in the latest analysis. …