Metascience is roughly defined as the science of doing science. This reading list is intended as a guide to those who have heard of the field and want to learn more — covering topics such as the problems metascience aims to address and what concrete projects and ideas look like.
This is my best shot at a comprehensive overview of relevant introductory readings in the field. If you think I missed any, please ping me!
Developing the science of science by Heidi Williams and Paul Niehaus
Market Failures in science, Milan Cvitkovic
In a chart, Jose Luiz
Academia and Startup Constraints, Ben Rienhardt
Science is getting harder, Matt Clancy
Science is getting less bang for its buck, Michael Nielsen and Patrick Collison
Mini-series: funding people, not projects, Nintil
Encouraging high-risk high-reward research at NIH, Chiara Franzoni and Paula Stephan
What We Learned Doing Fast Grants | Future, Patrick Collison, Tyler Cowen, Patrick Hsu
Understanding science funding in tech, 2011-2021, Nadia Asparohouva
New models for funding and organizing science, Nintil
Metascience - Institute for Progress
Most are visible here: Overedge Catalogue by Samuel Arbesman
Meta Research Innovation Center at Stanford
Center for Science of Science and Innovation
Science for Progress Initiative | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
Limits and Possibilities of Metascience, by Nintil
Idea machines, Nadia Asparohouva
Early stage funding markets for science: an analysis, Nadia Asparohouva
Interplay between funding orgs and research management, Ben Reinhardt
How Life Sciences Actually Work: Findings of a Year-Long Investigation, Alexey Guzey
A Vision of Metascience, Michael Nielsen, Kanjun Qui
Are ideas getting harder to find?
Original paper, Holden Karnofsky and Matt Clancy have also discussed this.
Good Science Project is an excellent substack focusing on improving the funding and practice of science.
The Atlantic has a great newsletter on Progress Studies, and occasionally touches on Metascience related topics
Matt Clancy (substack) consistently writes interesting pieces relating to the economics of innovation, which heavily overlaps with metascience