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The Matthew Effect Writ Large and Larger: A Study in Sociological Semantics Harriet Zuckerman Peer recognition matters in science—to those who receive it, to those who give it and to the system as a whole. Robert Merton’s1 early research persuaded him that scientists’ pursuit of recognition from knowledgeable peers shaped their work and the larger scientific enterprise.2 In all its complexities, peer recognition and its role in science remained a central focus of his research until the end. Not the product of mere vanity, the pursuit of recognition is built into the social organization of science. Even those who are modest by disposition are institutionally compelled to seek it. Receiving recognition assures scientists that their efforts have been worthwhile. It provides them with incentives to move forward, improves their research opportunities and enhances their prestige. All other rewards, as Merton crisply put it, “flow from it” (Merton R. K. 1995, 381). It is also consequential for the institution of science. The quest for recognition focuses collective attention on important problems. It quickens the pace of scientific activity and speeds the advancement of knowledge—or if one prefers—it promotes scientific change. It is not however an unalloyed good. It encourages scientists to make unwarranted claims for credit, to engage in unproductive priority conflicts, to exhibit unbridled competitiveness, and in some instances to commit fraud and plagiarism. Scientists believe that the extent of recognition meted out should accord with the extent of 1 Readers will note that I refer to Robert Merton with proper academic distance . I do so despite having spent 43 years simultaneously and consecutively as his collaborator, partner and wife. 2 Merton earmarked priority in scientific discovery or the importance of “being first,” and thus being credited for it, as sociologically significant in his doctoral dissertation published in 1938. At the time, he vowed to discuss it further at some later date. A full-scale discussion of priority did not appear until 1957 when he returned to it in his presidential address to the American Sociological Association (R. K. Merton 1957a). contributions made. Recognition should go to those who deserve it and in the amount that is warranted. But scientists are not naïve; they do not think that the ideal and the real always coincide. “Too much” or “too little” recognition can be awarded or it can go entirely to those who do not merit it at all. This evokes indignation and envy; it increases contention and it undermines the system by which intellectual property is secured. Although the pursuit of recognition is deeply embedded in science, Merton observed that many scientists are ambivalent about seeking it (Merton R. K. 1963). They want it but denigrate it. They are aggrieved when they think their work is unappreciated but trivialize its importance. For Merton, however, peer recognition was not at all trivial sociologically . How it is allocated and misallocated tell much about the organization of science and serve as strategic research sites for understanding the workings of its evaluation- and reward-systems and why their outcomes are so important (Merton R. K. 1987). The “Matthew Effect,” identifies conspicuous instances of the misallocation of recognition, that is, of giving recognition to those who have not earned it and failing to give it to those who have.3 The Matthew Effect, as Merton put it in his canonical paper of 1968, “consist[s] of the accruing of greater amounts of recognition for particular scientific contributions to scientists of considerable repute and the withholding of such recognition from scientists who have not yet made their mark” (Merton R. K. 1968 in 1973, 446).4 It was, he wrote, close to inevitable 122 Concepts and the Social Order 3 Few scientists would reject the claim that recognition should accord with the extent of contributions to knowledge; this is so however skeptical they are about practice conforming to principle. It is a bit ironic that some insist that Merton believed that scientists resolutely conformed to the “norms of science” when so much of his work focused on violations of them. 4 It may be that the Matthew Effect is itself a misattribution. “There is good reason to think that St. Matthew was not the author of the ‘stately phrase’ despite our having come to attribute it to him.” Rather, Merton wrote that some scholars of religion have claimed that Matthew was in fact quoting Jesus and thus the Matthew Effect might be more correctly labeled the Jesus Effect (R. K...

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