Publish or perish mindset plagues China's academia (2)

Trash papers

Why not publish in such highly regarded overseas academic journals as Nature or Science?

So the paper not only failed to draw the attention it richly deserves, but would not even "count" towards Zhang's teaching credits.

Without approbation from overseas experts, some domestic researchers in the field frankly expressed their skepticism about the paper's credibility.

Commenting on Zhang's dilemma in a recent interview, Sun Shijin, professor of psychology from Fudan University, called Zhang to be a "typical victim" of the prevailing academic assessment system.

There are many signs in academia of this national obsession with anything Western.

Meaningful research by domestic scholars has been steadily belittled, while research funds continue to fuel the mounting trash of papers in "authoritative" foreign journals.

As an example, Sun cites the research findings published in an authoritative journal to the effect that when exposed to a scene of a "Yellow" person suffering, a Yellow viewer would find it more poignant than a Caucasian.

In 1987, SCI (Science Citation Index) papers authored by Chinese researchers ranked about 27th in the world.

Thanks to decades of relentless pursuit of rising in this index, in 2010, China ranked the second in the world, after the US.

A number of academicians have pointed out frankly on various occasions that 85 percent of these published papers are trash.

But for a nation that has lost much of its sense of judgment in virtually all aspects of their life, this index, like the glittering GDP figures, affords them a steady source of national pride, and individual promotions.

In China a senior academic title is not just an honor for life, but linked to pay, pension and myriad perks.

As the fight for titles can be cutthroat, the number of published "scientific" papers has become a major criterion in deciding promotion.

The real picture can be more complicated.

A report in the China Youth Daily on Monday afforded us a glimpse into how these published papers can be skillfully leveraged to serve personal ambitions.

The report said that a couple of weeks ago in Sichuan Yibin College, Sichuan Province, it was revealed that of the 64 people who applied for associate professorship-level titles, 23 received them.

These successful candidates do not include some teachers known for their excellence in teaching and research.

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