The 55th NIBB Conference
Frontiers of Plant Science in the 21st CenturyConference Review |
Reports |
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Report on the Panel Discussion
3. Dealing with research redundancy
Toshiaki Tameshige (Kyoto University / NIBB, Japan) Today, many tools and methodologies exist for seeking new plant components or new functional molecules, while at the same time, the number of researchers in the field of plant science has been increasing. Thus, more than one group often reports the discovery of the same component. While in some cases, different groups reveal different aspects of the same component, giving us a deeper understanding of it, in others, different groups analyze the same component in similar ways and write similar papers. This can be termed “research redundancy,” which is wasteful in two ways. First, the authors are less appreciated because of the redundancy, and second, excessive amounts of money, time, and effort are expended to reach the same conclusion. If we can reduce research redundancy, more effort can be directed toward answering a greater number of fundamental questions.
Various approaches are useful for reducing or avoiding redundancy: for example, the use of many different species rather than strictly model species, and designing your experimental system for analysis of each objective in various contexts. Getting information from your competitors or potential competitors at conferences is the most effective way of reducing research redundancy, although limits exist to the amount of money and time you can save in this manner. Thus, the use of new technological tools including bulletin boards (BBs) and online message boards for easy and frequent communication will help to reduce research redundancy and contribute to plant science in the 21st century. 
≫ Audience comments and questions |
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