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Recruitment and incentives are described as common yet limited mechanisms, affected by biases, opportunity costs, and the risk of undermining intrinsic motivation. Drawing lessons from Moneyball and data-driven challenges to conventional wisdom, the work poses whether similar alternative strategies could apply to research performance. It introduces six unorthodox, promising directions including regular writing, creativity tools, good luck, happiness, good health, and crowd wisdom.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/australian-universities-review-research-productivity-some-paths-less-travelled/595396/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/australian-universities-review-research-productivity-some-paths-less-travelled/595396.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Blitz","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":14},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why do conventional recruitment approaches have limited effects on research productivity?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Recruiting better researchers can increase output only if they remain productive in their new jobs, and it may shift successful researchers into administrative roles. Selection is also affected by biases and weaknesses in interview-based procedures, with limited long-term follow-up testing.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What costs or risks come with using incentives to boost research output?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Incentives like teaching relief, grants, promotions, status, and praise may raise output but create opportunity costs, such as reduced funding for others and the need for others to provide teaching. Promotions can also reduce incentives for some, and praise can weaken intrinsic motivation.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What is the central argument for unorthodox strategies to improve research productivity?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The argument is that standard practices may not be optimal, echoing lessons from Moneyball: collecting the right data and resisting entrenched instincts can yield large gains. The document then outlines six promising approaches beyond recruitment and incentives.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},595396,1792081062,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":14,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":34,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":143,"preview_page_count":4},24464137899374,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nResearch productivity: some paths less travelled  \nBrian Martin  \nUniversity of Wollongong  \nConventional approaches for fostering research productivity, such as recruitment and incentives, do relatively little to develop latent capacities in researchers. Six promising unorthodox approaches are the promotion of regular writing, tools for creativity, good luck, happiness, good health and crowd wisdom. These options challenge conventional ideas about research management.  \nAre there other ways?  \nMichael Lewis in his popular book Moneyball tells how Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball club,produced winning teams on a shoestring (Lewis 2004). With a budget far less than many other teams, Beane helped the Athletics succeed by going against conventional wisdom in player recruitment and game strategy. Rather than relying on the recommendations of scouts, who looked for certain characteristics in young players, Beane instead went with statistics and recruited players who were unfashionable, for example due to their style, size or shape. In game strategy, he relied on statistics compiled by enthusiastic amateurs.  \nThe message from Moneyball is that the standard way of doing things may not be the best, and that collecting the right sort of data and following the numbers — and resisting instincts based on decades of experience — can reap huge rewards. A similar message emerges from the work of economist Steven Levitt, who has used data mining to challenge conventional policies and social explanations in a range of areas, from crime rates to choice of names (Levitt & Dubner 2005) .  \nDoes this message apply to research productivity? Are there different yet promising ways of promoting productivity?  \n14 Research productivity: some paths less travelled, Brian Martin  \nBefore addressing these questions, it is worth mentioning some conventional approaches. One is to appoint people who are or will become top researchers. This includes appointing proven performers, often at senior levels, and appointing promising new researchers, usually at junior levels.  \nChoosing the best candidate for a post, or headhunting a research star, is an everyday occurrence around the world. Often it is not done in the most effective fashion, for example due to biases based on familiarity, sex, ethnicity and age. The interview remains a mainstay of selection procedures despite evidence of its weaknesses (Grove et al. 2000; Meehl 1956) . Few organisations test their recruitment strategies by carrying out long-term follow-ups of successful and unsuccessful candidates.  \nHowever, there’s a more fundamental issue: recruiting better researchers can improve productivity for the hiring organisation, but it removes those researchers from their previous workplaces.There is only a net improvement in output, overall, if the researchers are more productive in their new jobs. Sometimes, successful researchers are hired into administrative roles with a detrimental impact on their research.  \nAnother standard way to increase research productivity is to offer incentives such as teaching relief, promotions, higher status and praise. But there are associated costs. Giving a researcher a grant or teaching relief  \nvol. 51, no. 1, 2009  \nA U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nmay well increase that researcher’s output, but thereis an opportunity cost: there is less grant money for others and someone else has to do the teaching. Being promoted can be an incentive for doing research, but promotions mean higher salaries for the indefinite future. Some researchers lose their incentive after being promoted, especially when a further promotion seems unlikely. Even praise, which costs nothing, hasan opportunity cost: dependence on praise can reduce intrinsic motivation (Kohn 1993) .  \nMany researchers work long and hard because of the satisfaction of doing research, including develop","cbCait3Razf5zm0h","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCait3Razf5zm0h","pdf",130835,"English","# Research productivity: some paths less travelled\n## Conventional approaches and their limitations\n## Unorthodox approaches: six promising paths\n### Writing\n### Creativity tools\n### Good luck and happiness\n### Good health and crowd wisdom\n## Implications and conclusion","[{\"question\":\"Why do conventional recruitment approaches have limited effects on research productivity?\",\"answer\":\"Recruiting better researchers can increase output only if they remain productive in their new jobs, and it may shift successful researchers into administrative roles. Selection is also affected by biases and weaknesses in interview-based procedures, with limited long-term follow-up testing.\"},{\"question\":\"What costs or risks come with using incentives to boost research output?\",\"answer\":\"Incentives like teaching relief, grants, promotions, status, and praise may raise output but create opportunity costs, such as reduced funding for others and the need for others to provide teaching. Promotions can also reduce incentives for some, and praise can weaken intrinsic motivation.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the central argument for unorthodox strategies to improve research productivity?\",\"answer\":\"The argument is that standard practices may not be optimal, echoing lessons from Moneyball: collecting the right data and resisting entrenched instincts can yield large gains. The document then outlines six promising approaches beyond recruitment and incentives.\"}]","Australian Universities’ Review - Research productivity: some paths less travelled | PDF",18]