Slow Science
Encyclopedia
Slow Science is part of the broader Slow Movement
. It is based on the belief that science
should be a slow, steady, methodical process, and that scientists should not be expected to provide "quick fixes" to society's problems. Slow Science supports curiosity
-driven scientific research
and opposes performance targets
.
Slow Movement
The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace. It began with Carlo Petrini's protest against the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome in 1986 that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization...
. It is based on the belief that science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
should be a slow, steady, methodical process, and that scientists should not be expected to provide "quick fixes" to society's problems. Slow Science supports curiosity
Curiosity
Curiosity is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity...
-driven scientific research
Scholarly method
Scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public.-Methods:...
and opposes performance targets
Performance Measurement
Performance measurement with a process is the complement to process execution. Based on measured performance, the feedback control loop may be closed. The metrics to assess performance is set according to a determined econometric model...
.
External links
- Fast science vs. slow science, or slow and steady wins the race (17 September 1990) by Eugene GarfieldEugene GarfieldEugene "Gene" Garfield is an American scientist, one of the founders of bibliometrics and scientometrics. He received a PhD in Structural Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. Dr. Garfield was the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information , which was located in...
, reprinted from The ScientistThe ScientistThe Scientist: Magazine of Life Sciences is a professional magazine intended for life scientists. Coverage includes reviews of widely noticed research papers, informing its audience of current research, updates to technology, updates to career information, profiles of scientists achieving...
, vol. 4, no. 18, p. 14 - Taking time to savour the rewards of slow science (21 September 2006) by Lisa Alleva, NatureNature (journal)Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
443, 271 - The Slow Science Manifesto (2010), The Slow Science Academy, Berlin