Neomania as an explanation of the poly-crisis

This chapter argues that the poly-crisis cannot be fully explained by familiar culprits such as “publish or perish” or publication bias. While these dynamics contribute to the problem, they fail to capture its systemic nature. At its core lies neomania—a structural obsession with novelty. Science operates within a societal framework that elevates innovation as the universal remedy for social and economic challenges and casts science as the engine that drives this innovation. Within this paradigm, the overriding expectation is that science must deliver the new.

This cultural imperative permeates every layer of the scientific system: journals prioritize novel findings, funding agencies reward groundbreaking proposals, universities measure success through innovation metrics, and media narratives amplify the demand for discovery while neglecting epistemic maintenance. The result is a research system that systematically undervalues replication, robustness checks, and theory building, allowing the poly-crisis to persist and deepen.