The best example is when you go apply for a visa to the US. For Chinese, the American immigration officer often assumes you intend to immigrate to the US until you can prove that you have no reasons to (by showing your wealth and/or your job status, etc.). The good news is this may soon change as more and more Chinese are becoming rich and as American policy makers begin to realize most Chinese hate to live a quiet life in a foreign land where bilingual does not include Chinese. Truly, most Chinese only want to come to the US for a visit, and some may want to buy lots of brand name handbags, shoes, and clothing, which is what the US economy needs now.

 

What I want to write about today is not about US visa application. I am concerned about Chinese scientists who write research papers in English. They are getting noticed, but not in a positive way.

 

The pressure to publish or perish is greater for Chinese these days than for any other country’s citizens. Some of them have become “bounty hunters.” The more you publish in SCI journals, the more cash rewards and promotions you receive.

 

Until now, many foreign journals are not prepared to “deal with” Chinese authors. Their first reaction may be “language problem.” The “victims” may not be limited to Chinese who work in China these days, because some of my colleagues suspect “name profiling” might be at work for some journal editors. (The truth is many English native speakers don’t know how to write well. But we scientists should set our bars higher.)

 

Such initial reaction may soon be followed by concerns for plagiarism, and authorship, namely, some names on the author list may not be willing co-authors (these people don’t know they are co-authors until the paper is published). I think sometimes the first author may think he is doing someone a favor by adding his name to the paper as a co-author, but please stop being so “generous.” To be a co-author may be an honor, but may ruin someone’s reputation…

 

Since a journal can no longer assume every author is innocent, to protect a journal’s reputation the journal may have to come up with some policy as a prevention measure.

 

One such measure came my mind is to ask the department chairman (or division leader) sign off each submission. I used to work as a NASA center. The policy there was each manuscript submission had to be signed off by the branch head. I never asked how the policy came to exist, and don’t know if the policy still exists. Somehow, I feel this is a relatively easy step to take. Sorry for the department chairmen in China, but you don’t need to read the manuscript you sign off (since I don’t think my branch head ever read mine when he signed his name). No one can guaranty this will work, but I think it’s harder to “fool” a Chinese than a “foreign devil,” at least in this case. My hope is that the department chairman cares about his department’s reputation enough to at least know what he is signing off... It’s not a bad idea for the chairman to know what his staff is working on and how productive they are.

 

As we all know, there are lawyers whose job is to find loop holes in every law and policy. We also know scientists are generally smarter than lawyers. But, one can only hope, and one has to have hope to go on...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounty_hunter

 

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