SORTEE member voices – Benjamin Marshall
[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
Name: Benjamin Michael Marshall.
Date: 03 July 2021.
Position: Researcher.
Research and/or work interests: Animal movement and spatial ecology.
If you had the power to change one thing about current incentives in your career path, what would it be?
I would like to see less emphasis placed on novelty. I see great value in undertaking the same research as others independently, be that a deliberate repetition or in isolation. Examining differences/similarities between research efforts can not only show interesting variation in the study subject, but also in the way researchers conceptualise and tackle a question. I’d love to see a greater appreciation for the value of repeated non-novel work and how it can build towards a more confident consensus. Deprioritizing novelty could relieve fears of being scooped and the rush to publish; relaxing time and publication pressure in science is sorely needed. There is little sense in building something up if the foundations are not solid.
