Post #2082228

2026-05-05 16:30 UTC

A tremendous amount of the scientific infrastructure is based on volunteerism and the assumption that the basics of survival have been met. I'm thinking of all of the infrastructure that makes the process actually work --- reviewing for journals, reviewing for promotion at other institutions, presenting talks, helping students, faculty governance, doing more than the absolute minimum in teaching, helping with collaborations on projects, etc. As the grant-getting situation gets more difficult, it becomes more and more difficult to actually provide these services (not because I don't want to, but simply because my head is full of funding crises and I just... how do the kids say it? ... don't have the spoons). Importantly, I do not think that the solution is to start charging for these things. Once you start selling them, you become a business. I *like* the volunteer system. It means that I can do these things because I believe in them. It means I can do these things for the people who deserve them and need them, not for the people who can pay for them. Moreover, the amount that one could reasonably charge for these things is no where close to the cost of running a lab. The amount of reviewing one would need to do at $450 a pop to get to the price of a trainee ($75k+) is not reasonable mathematics and would not leave one time to do the actual science. But I don't know how much longer I can do these favors for everyone while I watch my laboratory starve to death.

Replies (5)

@knutson_brain@sfba.social 2026-05-06 06:01

@adredish Science is based on mutual trust…

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@annakcroft@scholar.social 2026-05-06 06:20

@adredish similarly I object to the rise in reviewing ”credits” going on my record - it’s now one more thing a new academic needs to accumulate for promotion and/or forces the process to be under duress

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@JonSaenzAgirre@mastodon.eus 2026-05-06 11:42

@adredish I %100 agree with you. This is going to crash. Probably, reviewing will fall first.

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@koen_hufkens@mastodon.social 2026-05-06 11:47

@adredish I only match my reviews three to four fold for whatever I publish myself. I can't afford these things as an independent lab and consultant. It is one thing to do this on a salary, it is another if you don't know what the rest of the year looks like for the most part.

Open ##2145450
@Robotistry@fediscience.org 2026-05-06 16:51

@adredish Potential solution: UBI for living expenses, grants for research, university/company/professional society for library and community connection? Then the UBI is covering the volunteer work and you get to set how much and what volunteering you want to do, and the grant covers the remaining research expenses (space and equipment and supplies and honoraria for special expertise). You, and your students, and your lab tech all have their living expenses covered.

Open ##2145451