Scientific Research Markets

Tri-market System

Scientific research suffers from a number of problems that are analogous to the problems we see in media. There are problems inherent to its centralised journals model and there are problems inherent to the difficulty in profiting from information that can't be privatised.

The journals are for-profit businesses and this profit-seeking incentive often runs contrary to scientific truth-seeking. It is a well-documented fact that there is a bias to publish positive results as it is these that sell journals. This bias in turn creates an incentive for scientists to find positive results when a properly conducted study wouldn't. The consequence of this is that the vast majority of published articles can't be replicated.

As with most hierarchical human systems, peer review has also become politicised in many fields. There are many examples of situations where good papers were refused or withdrawn because they challenged prevailing dogma.

Another huge issue with the way science is conducted today is that if a discovery can't be patented there is no economic incentive to conduct research as there is no possibility of a payoff. Governments do try to fund this 'public good research' but the money available pales in comparison to the money poured into patentable research. Consequently progress is painfully slow.

Olas will implement a tri-market system to remedy all of these problems.

Figure : Olas Scientific Research Markets