Over-Competitiveness in Academia: A Literature Review

Abstract This study focuses on the negative effects of the highly competitive academic environment. We summarized the literature on what consequences an over-competitive system has on the people involved and on the productivity of the system as a whole. We conclude that negative effects outweigh the potential gains which competitive systems bring about. The literature suggests that not only do constant rejections demotivate the majority of academics, but also the funding allocation process in itself seems inefficient. The pressure on academics is so high that we tend to systematically over-estimate our success chances of our funding proposals, manuscripts and promotion requests.

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