Science shapes culture in a way few institutions do. Much of modern life is a product of the scientific process and its offshoot, technology. In a very real sense, science provides the backbone to the modern world. Creative and pioneering science is even more important. One only has to see the way our world has benefited from the pioneering work on mRNA vaccines to see the importance of creative, innovative ideas in science.
Despite, or maybe because of the importance of pioneering ideas in science, some social scientists have lamented an apparent decline in the number and quality of scientific ideas largely using indirect economic or data science approaches.
As psychologists who study scientific creativity, we wanted to put this claim to the test. From our vantage point, a data point that is missing from this conversation is what we would consider the gold standard approach to identifying the number and quality of creative ideas in science–expert nominations. That’s what this project is all about. We want you, a working scientist, to identify the ideas that you know of in your field that you believe to be creative or innovative. We plan to curate these nominations and then circulate them back to you and your colleagues so you can collectively identify the most creative ideas in your field of expertise. Tracked over time, we believe this will be an invaluable addition to our understanding of whether creative ideas are on the rise or falling.
Despite, or maybe because of the importance of pioneering ideas in science, some social scientists have lamented an apparent decline in the number and quality of scientific ideas largely using indirect economic or data science approaches.
As psychologists who study scientific creativity, we wanted to put this claim to the test. From our vantage point, a data point that is missing from this conversation is what we would consider the gold standard approach to identifying the number and quality of creative ideas in science–expert nominations. That’s what this project is all about. We want you, a working scientist, to identify the ideas that you know of in your field that you believe to be creative or innovative. We plan to curate these nominations and then circulate them back to you and your colleagues so you can collectively identify the most creative ideas in your field of expertise. Tracked over time, we believe this will be an invaluable addition to our understanding of whether creative ideas are on the rise or falling.
As the data collection proceeds, we will synthesize the information you provided here, so you can foresee what ideas are being suggested as the most creative in your field (and other fields too).