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Yes, “how long the H-index is” does matter in academia. But for science, it does NOT. Big discoveries are often made by people with small metrics. Examples are: 1. Katalin Karikó got ONLY ~300 citations/year in 2005 when she discovered the potential use of mRNA in therapeutics. 2. Andre Geim had ONLY ~1500 citations/year in 2004 when his team discovered graphene. 3. Frances Arnold got ONLY ~200 citations/year in 1993 when she demonstrated the directed evolution of enzymes. (And many others) 📍 In academia: 1. Faculty positions are much easier to get when you have strong metrics after PhD+postdoc. 2. Funding is much easier to get when you you have big metrics. It’s the case for most countries. 3. Strong postdocs prefer to join groups where professors have big profiles. 📍 In science: 1. Big discoveries do not care about the journal. Publishing in Nature/Science does not turn the study into a discovery. 2. Big ideas do not care about funding. Most discoveries were made without millions of $$$ in allocated budgets. 3. Great talents full of ideas can be found at any place. You don’t need to go to “top university” to find them. ❗️My point is simple: Academia ≠ science. #PhD #research #science

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