I've just written a short article for the Guardian newspaper (see link). I'd love to have as many people read and engage with the article as possible - tweet it, share it and take the survey at the end. Hopefully enough people will respond and give us some real data to discuss working conditions within scientific research.
http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/mar/21/young-scientists-need-to-fight-for-their-employment-rights#comments
Tweets are not reliable scientific data - if you are serious about reliable information, you will have to do a more thorough job of developing a way to interview scientists.
You don't need any data. Too many people want to be scientists. Nobody needs those people to do science any more than we need people to be philosophers or booksellers or lawyers. I am afraid there is no case for young scientists being 'hard done by'. It is a competitive business.
@Jonathan Edwards - "Nobody needs those people to do science". What percentage of scientific output would you estimate is produced by PhD students or postdocs?
Most of it is Nick. But you can always find someone else who wants to do it. And the great majority of at least biomedical science now is rubbish perpetuated by the citation index drive. Being a scientist should be a privilege that you earn if you are better than anyone else at some problem. It is not a service industry where people are just needed to do the job - like teaching or medicine. Unfortunately, young scientists mostly do not realise that. We now live in a dog eat dog capitalist system. The only way to have a stable career structure where the numbers add up is to go back to the old system where most staff were technical grade with BSc degrees. It worked fine but people wanted things on the cheap and since there were lots of people prepared to do PhDs for nothing, that is what we got.
Jonathan, unless one has a way to know who will make a truly accomplished scientist in years to come, how could one arbitrarily limit who should or should not enter a graduate program?
None of the conventional tests that can be administered are a good enough indicator of someone's future potential.
I am assuming that you are not proposing to go back to good-ol' days when scientific pursuit was a hobby of selected upper class of the society and topics pursued were often motivated by what would impress their club members. Of course, the "research" was done by a team of technicians so at least that part will meet your approval. ;)
I see nothing wrong with a little competition.
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