ABSTRACT
In science, as in other domains, the distributions of resources, achievements, and rewards are sharply skewed.1 Numerous inquiries have shown that a small fraction of scientists receive more than their share of research resources, contribute disproportionately to scientific knowledge, and are accorded the lion’s share of recognition. More over, disparities among scientists in access to resources, in contribu tions, and in rewards increase as they move through their careers, making for growing inequality between age-peers. The theory of accu mulation of advantage and disadvantage attempts to account for such inequalities and has been a focus of empirical and theoretical research in the sociology of science since the late 1960s. In the process, it has shaped ideas about stratification in science and, in some measure, about stratification in other institutions as well.
