Economic and Business Dimensions The Gamification of Academia: Gaming the system.

The article discusses the establishment of a system to provide metrics and rank the academic value of social science research articles, authors, universities and other organizations. Information is presented on the way the metrics began to have real-world implications for career advancement and tenure, tempting individuals to manipulate these metrics by utilizing methods such as crafting software scripts to boost their metrics and employing graduate students to repeatedly download their papers. The article ends by asking if the prevalence of cheating within academia is a result of the pursuit of status within the intellectual hierarchy, or a consequence of 'gamification' infiltrating academics' lives, eliciting behavior patterns inherent to human nature?