Abstract
From a sample of 400 biologists drawn from American Men and Women of Science, 335 supplied information about their predoctoral experiences and accomplishments. These accomplishments and experiences were related to two measures of adult scientific achievement: (1) number of published articles, and (2) total number of citations received over a 5-year period. The number of published articles correlated significantly with 14 items, most of which could be classified into three conceptual groups: (1) predoctoral productivity, (2) excellence in predoctoral science work, and (3) early interest in science. The number of citations correlated significantly with 16 items, most of which clustered into three categories: (1) awards, (2) predoctoral productivity, and (3) early interest in science. It was concluded that potentially highly creative biologists can often be identified by predoctoral accomplishments and experiences at the graduate school level. Identification at the college level is more difficult, and at the high school level, extremely difficult.
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