Work Habits of Highly Cited Scientists

In a recent paper in Scientometrics, a group of scientists examined what the social properties are of the most highly cited scientists in the fields of environmental science and ecology. They asked highly cited scientists (determined using ISIHighlyCited.com) to complete an online survey, and collected a wide variety of information, from demographics to perspectives on peer review.

The part that I found most intriguing was the analysis of work habits of these highly cited scientists. Specifically, they looked at how much time was spent on different categories of tasks, finding that these scientists spent about 25.5 hours per week on service-related tasks, and only about 23.5 hours on research activities. However, these highly cited scientists worked about 3.5 hours less overall than the average of those with doctoral degrees in their areas. In addition, the researchers looked at how much these high-impact scientists drink, finding an average of seven alcoholic drinks a week, which is 2.5 more than the average American.