Table 1.

Definitions of the various forms of credibility

Form of credibility	Definitiona
Money	Funding that can be spent on research activities
Staff and equipment	Human and technical capital for research activities
Data	Raw findings
Arguments	Contributions to scientific debates based on interpreted findings
Articles (and other outcomes)	Publications and other concrete products of research activities
Recognition	A scientist’s (informal) reputation based on his/her achievements and scores in formal quality assessments such as research evaluations and performance interviews

^aThese explicit definitions were formulated for this particular study, but they are in line with earlier writings on the credibility cycle (Latour and Woolgar 1986, Hessels et al. 2009)