The point of view | it is these people who have "no interest in scholarship" who mess up academia and turn scholarship into a market

Source of this article: Caixin

Transferred from: Chinese good scholars, academic school

In Chinese academia, there is a strange phenomenon, that is, academic papers are not published through ability, but through relationships, or academic papers are not the expression of personal academic ability, but the result of money dredging, the result of buying papers at a large price. Such academics should be called the academic market. Such a paper should be called the paper market. Academic papers are transactions, not academic exchanges. The academic paper market is a market for academic corruption, and it has a growing trend. I am afraid that this phenomenon is only in China, or only in China, and it is not an exaggeration to call it Chinese characteristics. It's just that this Chinese characteristic will make people around the world laugh and make it difficult for Chinese academia to prosper.

Authors who publish papers in journals have a two-tiered tendency. The first level is a famous artist, publishing academic papers does not cost money, the magazine also invites famous artists to send, and there are varying amounts of manuscript fees, even if the papers published by the name have no academic value, but it is because of the famous masters, it also has academic value. The other level is non-famous artists, and it costs money to publish academic papers. As for how much to spend, it depends on the quality of the magazine. The so-called magazine quality, that is, the level of the magazine. Taking the liberal arts as an example, the quality of liberal arts journals includes A-level, B-level, C-level, core journals, provincial-level journals, and so on. Published in the A level such as "Chinese Social Sciences" has the highest level, the highest quality. The quality of the paper itself does not represent the quality, and it is only at the highest level that it is published to have high quality.

Not to mention the highest-level magazine, that is, the liberal arts C journal, which is about 1,000. The number of people who need to publish articles is large, but the magazine is extremely limited, and the magazine is bound to become a scarce resource. On the other hand, even if the quality is up to standard, it is because it is not a famous artist, and it is difficult to initiate an article. If you don't publish articles in category C, evaluate the title, evaluate various awards, and evaluate various honors, there will be no academic reason and basis. Publishing articles is closely related to practical interests, magazines set rent-seeking, and authors treat articles as buying and selling, and there is a huge space and a buyer-seller market. Especially young people, the title is beckoning to them, but the ability is limited, the experience is insufficient, the academic foundation is weak, and they have to seek a way to survive outside the academic paper.

The way to survive is to pull the relationship through the back door and follow the unspoken rules of the paper. The way of the unspoken rules of the paper is difficult for laymen to see, and the insiders are very proficient in the routine of taking the unspoken rules. It should be pointed out that the academic market and the dissertation market are non-mainstream among famous people and mainstream among non-famous people. For non-famous artists, it is really difficult to publish papers. Those non-celebrities have no interest in scholarship, but they are interested in interests and reputations, and the pursuit of improper interests and reputations becomes their motivation. It is these people who have messed up scholarship, turned scholarship into a market, turned papers into a market, and made the market for academic papers flourish in a despicable way.

The unspoken rule approach requires emotional and financial exchanges between the author and the magazine editor, and emotional exchange replaces academic exchange. If the paper is the author himself, then the author will seek various relationships to publish the paper. If the author knows a magazine, he or she contacts the editor of the magazine directly, and this connection has both emotional and financial investment. If the relationship is good, the capital investment is small or even no need for funds. If the relationship is average, the capital investment is more. There are also many ways to invest funds, such as inviting a magazine to give a lecture and traveling by the way of a lecture. At the same time, there is a positive correlation between the amount of capital invested and the level of the magazine. The level of the magazine is high, the capital investment is high, and the magazine level is low, and the capital investment is low.

There is another layer of relationship between the investment of funds and the author. If the author is an official, the capital investment is carried out in the name of academics, and if the author is not an official, the capital investment must be paid by the individual. Of course, there are also interest exchanges and transactions. For example, let the magazine editor, especially the editor-in-chief and deputy editor of the magazine, become an honorary professor, visiting professor, chair professor, honorary director, consultant, etc. in a university, thus gaining more benefits, reputation and social status than money.

If the author is not familiar with the magazine editor's line, then seek someone who is familiar with the magazine editor, and this familiar person becomes an intermediary. Because there is one more intermediary, more money will be spent. This is because the intermediary also has to spend money, and cannot be an intermediary in vain, so the author also has to give money to the intermediary. If the intermediary is looking for a magazine with a high level, then it will spend more money, and if the magazine level is low, it will spend less money.

As a result, a broker culture emerged in China. Through cultural brokers, the three parties benefit. If it is through an unknown online intermediary, the price will be surprisingly high, and even this situation has occurred, that is, the price of articles in the C category is more than 10,000 yuan or even 50,000 yuan. Of course, such a price is difficult for ordinary people to afford. However, as long as there is market demand, there are still people who pay high prices. After publishing an article in a high-level magazine and rating the title, the salary went up, and the salary that rose in two years made up for the intermediary fee. The calculation of costs and benefits, the person who buys the paper is also very shrewd.

If the author has enough patience, if the author maintains academic interest, then write frequently, the quality of the article is always from low to high, and there is always a process of obtaining the approval of the editorial department. Even if high-level magazines publish some low-level articles, the overall level is still passable. After all, magazines also need rank, they also need prestige, they also need relegation, they also need to be reviewed, and they also need the recognition of experts and peers. Even if the high-level article editorial department has a close relationship with the author, such as classmates, even if the intermediary obtains benefits for the editor himself, the article still needs a certain quality as a guarantee, otherwise, the survival of the magazine will become a problem.

Those who are not interested in academia and want to evaluate jobs have to find another way. One of the most important ways is to spend money on papers and money to publish papers. The paper that you spend money to buy must be a high-quality paper, so that the article can be sent out. The emergence of the essay writing market and the essay buying and selling market is also inevitable. The thesis shooter is the main body of the paper seller, these people or the title has been evaluated, for these people, it is no use to write a paper, not to mention that this part of the people did not take the paper seriously, but only used the paper as a means of evaluation, not to pursue academic freedom. These people may be people who exchange different and multitudes of benefits. These people may be people who are trying to survive, such as individual PhD students at universities, who sell papers online through intermediaries. These people or the purpose of writing papers is to sell papers, to write papers and sell papers for a living. The buying and selling price of the paper depends on the level of the magazine and the quality of the article. It is said that the price of good papers is more than 10,000 yuan. This is undoubtedly very attractive to China's current extremely low writing fees.

People often say that China's papers are the first in the world, China's paper garbage is also the world's first, and the essence of the big country of the paper is a small country of culture. If the paper market continues to follow this path, then China's dream of being a cultural power has truly become a dream. If for the protection of natural animals, there is no harm without buying and selling, then it can also be said that there is no harm to academia without trading. To prohibit academic trading is to prohibit academic harm. However, in the current academic context, the road of prohibiting academic harm is too difficult to go.