“Am I Famous Yet?” Judging Scholarly Merit in Psychological Science

Abstract

The purpose of this symposium is to consider new ways of judging merit in academia, especially with respect to research in psychological science. First, I discuss the importance of merit-based evaluation and the purpose of this symposium. Next, I review some previous ideas about judging merit—especially creative merit—and I describe some of the main criteria used by institutions today for judging the quality of research in psychological science. Finally, I suggest a new criterion that institutions and individuals might use and draw some conclusions.