The tuna dispute

Abstract

The current scientific research system, which has now become obsessively competitive and based on parameters such as Impact Factor, ranking and number of citations, has condemned to oblivion the knowledge acquired before its current canons were codified, also discouraging the citation of everything that is collectively referred to as “grey literature”. The story of a historic dispute on the determination of the productive maturity of tuna highlights the limits of the current system for evaluating the quality of scientific research.