The unintended consequences of performance-based incentives on inequality in scientists' research performance

The reward system in academic science has changed rapidly in recent years, as many universities especially in Asia and Europe implemented new incentive systems based on research performance. To understand the relationship between inequality in science and the performance-based incentives, this study examined the influence of incentives for publications on not only research performance, but also the distribution of research performance in a Korean university. The findings of this study suggest that using a carefully designed performance incentive system, research organizations may reduce inequality in scientists' research performance while increasing their overall performance. The reduced inequality was due mainly to lower ranking researchers improving their publication performance. Meanwhile, top-ranked researchers responded only to incentives for the quality of publications. We interpret the change in research performance as an outcome of complicated interactions among the structure of incentive systems, scientists' diverse motivations, and their position in the stratification in science.