Academic superstars: competent or lucky?
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Peer-reviewed
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Article
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Authors
Heesen, R https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-944X
Abstract
I show that the social stratification of academic science can arise as a result of academics’ preference for reading work of high epistemic value. This is consistent with a view on which academic superstars are highly competent academics, but also with a view on which superstars arise primarily due to luck. I argue that stratification is beneficial if most superstars are competent, but not if most superstars are lucky. I also argue that it is impossible to tell whether most superstars are in fact competent or lucky, or which group a given superstar belongs to, and hence whether stratification is overall beneficial.
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Keywords
Philosophy of science, Social structure of science, Formal epistemology, Social epistemology, Network formation
Journal Title
Synthese
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Journal ISSN
0039-7857
1573-0964
1573-0964
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Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
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Sponsorship
This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SES 1254291.