It is still unclear who submitted the papers or why – some of the individuals listed as authors were unaware of the papers’ existence. While it might seem surprising that such a thing could happen, these kinds of embarrassments are not uncommon and, in fact, are not even the most worrisome problem in academic publishing. The system that allowed these articles to get through the review process is one that values volume of superficially impressive academic papers at the expense of high-quality work. By rewarding articles that offer the appearance of legitimacy, but do not necessarily contain significant discoveries, academic journals perpetuate a “public-or-perish” culture that incentivizes researchers to compromise academic rigor and churn out articles at an unrealistic pace.(b) And by measuring academic success through publication in these very journals, universities ultimately foster this same culture on their campuses.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:54:11 +0000
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