Time: research necessities make it hard to keep track


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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Sir Plans to impose effort-reporting on scientists, as mentioned in your Editorial 'On the paper trail' and News story


'Researchers criticized for poor time-keeping' (_Nature_ 449, 508 and 512–513; 2007), will be difficult to implement. In practice, it is almost impossible to give an accurate


estimate of effort, because scientists are rarely off the job, even when asleep. If they are not actually doing a particular task, they are planning the next, or puzzling over the most


recent observation. How should that time be counted? In most research, the edges of a project are only known indistinctly. So in many cases it is difficult to know when one has wandered from


one project to another or into an unfunded area. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Subscribe to this


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support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, 303 Belmont Street, Worcester, 01604, Massachusetts, USA Robert J. O'Connell Authors


* Robert J. O'Connell View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTRIBUTIONS TO CORRESPONDENCE MAY BE SUBMITTED TO


[email protected] . PUBLISHED CONTRIBUTIONS ARE EDITED. SCIENCE PUBLISHING ISSUES OF INTEREST TO AUTHORS ARE REGULARLY FEATURED AT NAUTILUS ( HTTP://BLOGS.NATURE.COM/NAUTILUS ),


WHERE WE WELCOME COMMENTS AND DEBATE. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE O'Connell, R. Time: research necessities make it hard to keep


track. _Nature_ 450, 161 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/450161a Download citation * Published: 07 November 2007 * Issue Date: 08 November 2007 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/450161a SHARE


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