The FRONATL project seeked to find out if and how the introduction of quantitative output indicators and individual rankings is changing science and research. Specifically, it examined to what extent the introduction of individual rankings influence appointment decisions and career opportunities for young academics, further, what significance such a ranking has for researchers' choice of journals, topics and methods, and whether its introduction influences the quality of empirical research results. Factors influencing initial appointments, distortions and statistical errors in publications are primarily examined in Kassel; the development of the main research topics as well as the attractiveness of journals in Dresden.