Ortega hypothesis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Ortega hypothesis holds that average or mediocre scientists contribute substantially to the advancement of science.[1] According to this hypothesis, scientific progress occurs mainly by the accumulation of a mass of modest, narrowly specialized intellectual contributions. On this view, major breakthroughs draw heavily upon a large body of minor and little-known work, without which the major advances could not happen.[2] Citation research[edit] The Ortega hypothesis is widely held,[2] but a number of systematic studies of scientific citations have favored the opposing “Newton hypothesis”, which says that scientific progress is mostly the work of a relatively small number of great scientists (after Isaac Newton’s statement that…
