Having to pay for 'academic achievement'

·                                 Source: Global Times

·                                 [15:56 August 04 2009]

·                                 Comments

By Zhu Shanshan

Mu Chen was hopeful of getting an annual scholarship at Renmin University and was even told he made it to the shortlist.

But after he looked up the university webpage that releases the names of the scholarship winners, he didn't find his name on there.

The 23-year-old was frustrated by the result, as he was a postgraduate student majoring in law at the university. He had a comparatively high GPA and joined two students' associations to make himself an all-round student, but the result shows that what he had was far from enough.

“I was an underdog in academic performance because I didn't have any published articles,” Mu said, who declined to give his real name.

While he was figuring out how to improve his academic performance, his classmate Li Xiao had published his first “academic achievement”, or his own research, which helped him get a high score in competing for a future scholarship.

After finishing the first semester of postgraduate study, Li wondered about publishing one of his best papers in an academic journal. He searched online and found one that matched his academic requirements.

“I first submitted them my paper through e-mail, and the editor replied to me with some suggestions for format revision,” Li explained to the Global Times. “But I didn't expect the editor to ask me to pay a 'publishing fee'.”

The editor of Legal System and Society which is a provincial-level journal founded by the Department of Justice of Yunnan Province asked Li to pay 600 yuan to publish his paper on two pages in the journal.

Although he felt awkward having to pay the journal to publish his work, Li handed over the money and it appeared in the academic journal. But he was disappointed when he received a copy of Legal System and Society with his paper in it. His two-page paper was only one of 266 articles covering 399 pages.

“I found journals like it (Legal System and Society) just rubbish, because there is no creativity in their articles,” Li said. “People pay to have their work published because they need some academic achievements and the journals are right there to satisfy their demands.” After having gone through that experience, Li said he would not pay to publish his paper in those kinds of journals again.

China had 9,468 periodical titles in 2007, and the total value of the industry was worth more than 20 billion yuan in 2007, according to the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China (GAPP).

But the advertisement only accounted for no more than 15 percent of the periodicals' revenue at 3 billion yuan, while the majority revenue came from subscriptions.

Meanwhile, China Central Television (CCTV) earned 8.6 billion yuan in advertising in 2005, much more than the advertising revenue from all 9,468 magazines in 2007.

And the situation for academic journals in China is far worse than those commercial ones. With small circulation numbers, academic periodicals have very limited advertisement revenues.

While some journals receive government funding, many claim the handout is not enough to pay for all the operating expenses and need the 'publishing fee' to cover additional costs.

Therefore, publishers of academic journals have found their own way to survive – by having writers paying to have their work published.

With more and more universities standardizing academic achievements, university teachers and students are required to publish a certain number of papers every year in order to get promoted or to win scholarships.

Students like Mu in Renmin University have to publish at least one paper or write a book to get 20 points in the annual scholarship application, which examines GPA, social activities and 'academic achievements'.

Where there is a need, there is a supply: Publishers use the increased demand in Chinese academia to publish papers to make money. Different from commercial magazines or newspapers, academic magazines charge writers money to publish their paper.

About 60 percent of Chinese academic journals charge writers fees publicly, while around 20 percent of them do it secretly, an estimate made by Liu Changqiu, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences who has written many articles criticizing the phenomenon.

The number of China's published papers has soared from 8,997 in 1991 to 49,788 in 2003, which makes the country ninth in the total number of papers published in the international Science Citation Index (SCI).

But quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality. According to SCI, the overall number of citations of Chinese papers was listed 18th in the world, but the citation per paper by other works, which reflects the quality of a paper, only has 3.01 times, or ranking 124th in the world.

“If the academic environment is not healthy, the future of science will become extinct,” said He Zuoxiu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He critically said numerous worthless papers in academic journals are the roots that are poisoning the development of science and technology.

Despite the widespread practice of journals demanding payment to publish papers, it is illegal.

In 2002, the State Council issued the Regulation on Publication Administration and Regulations for Administration of Periodical Publication in 2005, which prohibit publishing units to sell or lease their edition layout of their periodicals. However, the law is not strictly enforced.

Also, the excuse of not enough government funding is not true, according to Liu of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“Actually the majority of academic publications receive financial support from the government. There should be no excuse for shortages of funds. Publishers just cannot wait and see others earning money from contributors,” Liu said, adding that the loophole in enforcing the law is the root of the problem.

Speaking from his own experience, in his university days, Liu was once asked to pay 400 yuan to publish his paper in a Sichuan journal. Describing it as “ridiculous”, Liu declined to pay and eventually, the journal published his article and even gave him 100 yuan for a remuneration fee.

“This is an example for students who want to publish their articles and don't want to pay the 'publishing fees'”, Liu advised. “As long as your paper is good, you can find journals eager to publish it,” he said, adding students should find some new journals which are keen for contributions.

 

 

 

 

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