Is the core periodical spoof or kitsch in the ＂ass paper＂
Comics/Bin Chen
Recently, a paper published seven years ago in the Chinese core journal Glacier and Frozen Soil has aroused public concern. In the process of discussing eco-economics, the author enumerates the examples of the tutor couple, and then expounds "the noble feeling of the tutor and the beautiful feeling of the teacher’s mother" In this regard, "Glacier Frozen Soil" issued a statement on the 12 th, saying that it attached great importance to the situation and decided to withdraw the article. The staff of the journal revealed that several other papers published by the author in the journal Glacier and Frozen Soil will also be retracted.
In recent years, it is not uncommon for some academic journals to publish "water injection" papers and plagiarize papers. However, like these two papers in Glacier Frozen Soil, the topic is "Theory and Practice of Integrated Framework of Ecological Economics", but almost all of them praise the glorious deeds and noble character of the mentor and Jenny, plus various life feelings, which is rare. It is no exaggeration that such a paper is called "God’s Paper" by netizens.
"Mentor Shanghainese, the name of Guodong is real, holding an eternal sword, learning to drive the clouds; The teacher’s mother, Cixi, is as beautiful as jade, guarding the lotus sword and dancing in the kitchen. " Such content can be published as a professional paper in Chinese core journals, which undoubtedly seriously desecrates the seriousness of academic journals. After being exposed by the internet, it is undoubtedly necessary for the journal to withdraw the papers. However, for the academic circles, the paper "On the noble feelings of teachers and the graceful feelings of teachers and mothers" should not be viewed only as a joke, nor should it be simply regarded as the author’s "academic misconduct".
This kind of spoof or kitsch has precedent before. It is reported that some foreign scholars have concocted several "nonsense" papers with a paper generator, and submitted them to journals such as Computer Intelligence and Nanotechnology with the characters in cartoons as the authors, but the results were accepted and published. Another neuroscientist seriously wrote a paper on the theory of "fibrinogen" in "Star Wars", and four journals actually fell for it. The above-mentioned "God’s Thesis" published in Glacier Frozen Soil has a complete structure, abstracts and references, and there are specially made charts in it, which are similar to the "Doctor’s Thesis on Braised Pork" circulating on the Internet. If the author didn’t mean to "spoof", it is difficult to understand why he spent his energy writing such a thousand-word thesis.
However, it is somewhat different from the "doctoral thesis on braised pork" and the "spoof" papers written by foreign scientists. The authors of these two papers in Glacier Frozen Soil did not just write funny papers to amuse themselves on the Internet, nor did they submit them to completely unfamiliar journals. The "tutor" mentioned in the article is the main programmer of the journal. There are only two explanations for the editor-in-chief to publish papers about his lofty sense and his teacher’s mother’s beauty: first, Cheng Moumou is "useful" in praising and touting his articles; Second, it is entirely up to him to decide what articles to publish. Journals are his personal "turf", and no matter what aspects they reflect, they are absurd.
The above-mentioned "Shen Thesis" was published in 2013, and it was only exposed by netizens after six or seven years, indicating that few people may read the "academic papers" in our professional journals. In recent years, universities and scientific research institutions at all levels have attached great importance to papers, such as requiring graduate students to publish several papers before graduation, how many papers must be published by teaching and scientific research personnel every year, and introducing high-tech means to check the papers. According to relevant statistics, in 2016, the number of papers published by China scholars has jumped to the top in the world, with 420,000 papers published that year. And among so many papers, how many are "junk papers" or even "divine papers" is unknown.
I hope that the paper on "the noble feeling of teachers and the graceful feeling of teachers and mothers" can be an opportunity to attract the attention of relevant parties and rectify the chaos in academic circles. (Li Qing)