An article in the New York Times describes a new study published in Oikos, a “highly respected scientific journal.” The study reports that the more beer a scientist drinks, the less likely the scientist is to publish a paper or to have a paper cited by another researcher.
While I’d have to read the paper to decide if I really do believe this, it does make a good story. And it does make you think – perhaps the way to bolster your career is to spend less time at the local pub, and more at the local scientific meetings, where they generally serve wine. Anyone care to do the follow-up study and see how wine consumption correlates with scientific publishing success?