“Publish SCI papers or no degree”: practices of Chinese doctoral supervisors in response to the publication pressure on science students

Publishing English papers in journals listed in Science Citation Index (SCI) has become a requirement for degree conferment for doctoral science students at many universities in China. The publication requirement engenders high pressure for doctoral students and their supervisors and shapes the politics of the relationship between the two parties. This is illustrated in the present paper which reports a study conducted at a prestigious university in east China. Focusing on the case of a research group in biochemistry led by an expert writer (the supervisor), the study aimed to find out, from the supervisor's perspective, what revising papers for the students means to him, and what the students learn as a result of their papers being revised. It is shown that the students depend on the supervisor to meet the publication requirement, and the supervisor believes an average student cannot write a publishable paper. The paper discusses the disempowering effect of the publication requirement, and concludes that there is a role for a course on academic English writing, and that the focus on “publishing SCI papers or no degree” should be shifted at the policy level and long-term planning should go into the training of EAP-qualified language professionals.     

The postdigital challenge of redefining academic publishing from the margins

ABSTRACT

This paper explores relationships between knowledge production and academic publication and shows that the current political economy of mainstream academic publishing has resulted from a complex interplay between large academic publishers, academics, and hacker-activists. The process of publishing is a form of ‘social production’ that takes place across the economy, politics and culture, all of which are in turn accommodating both old and new technology in our postdigital age. Technologies such as software cannot be separated from human labour, academic centres cannot be looked at in isolation from their margins, and the necessity of transdisciplinary approaches does not imply the disappearance of traditional disciplines. In the postdigital age, the concept of the margins has not disappeared, but it has become somewhat marginal in its own right. We need to develop a new language of describing what we mean by ‘marginal voices’ in the social relations between knowledge production and academic publication. Universities require new strategies for cohabitation of, and collaboration between, various socio-technological actors, and new postdigital politics and practice of knowledge production and academic publishing.     

The Necessity for Particularity in Education and Child-Rearing: the moral issue

The justification debate has always been a major issue within philosophy of education. In this study Wittgensteinian interpretation of this matter is offered. It is argued that in using his framework justification itself has to be thought of differently, i.e. as making explicit the bedrock of the form of life the educator finds him or herself in. But Wittgenstein's insights highlight too the particularity of the ethical and therefore also of the educational situation. The paper argues that educators cannot but take a stance, cannot but act in accordance with what appeals to them in the midst of the irreconcilable desires of others. It is therefore considered that the demand for particularity reveals itself here as a demand for authenticity.     

Toleration and Recognition: What should we teach?

Generally we think it good to tolerate and to accord recognition. Yet both are complex phenomena and our teaching must acknowledge and cope with that complexity. We tolerate only what we object to, so our message to students cannot be simply, 'promote the good and prevent the bad'. Much advocacy of toleration is not what it pretends to be. Nor is it entirely clear what sort of conduct should count as intolerant. Sometimes people are at fault for tolerating what they should not, or for tolerating what they should find unexceptionable. So virtue does not always lie with toleration. Tolerance can also seem condescending; should we therefore replace it with recognition? But recognition may not be able to coexist with the disapproval that makes toleration necessary. However, not everything about toleration and recognition is controversial; there are fixed points from which students can grapple with the issues presented by both.     

一蓑烟雨任平生——论苏轼作品的生命美学意识

满意也好,失落也罢,在愿与不愿中都将写成晴的天、泪的眼;但只要拥有一颗感悟生命的心,便会有一花一世界、一叶一佛陀的圣影.尘世人生,在苏东坡浩浩瀚瀚、坦坦荡荡的心中,便再容纳不下现实的窘迫,也容纳不下未来的空淡.在宦海沉浮中的贬逐生涯彰显的则是苏东坡自身精神生命的升华.生存过后,不免要提及死亡,沉重感也由此而来,然而,沉重的却并非是死亡,而恰恰是生存本身.将一生的贬谪看成是最大的功绩,将五十九年的放逐指向"生不契家,死不扶柩",这便是不计此身何处还的"东坡家风".     

Reasons and mediators in the development and communication of personal digital stories

The expansion of access to devices, as well as the production and publication options in social networks requires a broader definition of the traditional notion of personal digital storytelling. To get a deeper understanding of these practices in the group of adolescents, the objective of this article is to analyze what are the reasons that direct the publications of personal stories and what kind of filters, agents and consequences are articulated in these stories. To do this, the most qualitative part of an investigation on teenagers’ internet publication guidelines is synthesized. Specifically, the results of a semi-structured interview with 12 adolescents between 12 and 20 years are shown. The answers show that the interviewees’ perspective on what a digital story is goes beyond the format and varies depending on the network where it is published and the type of content. Thus, the emphasis and motivation of the publication has shifted from the digital - which has been incorporated with something normal and not differential - towards the personal, focusing the publications on the daily life of young people. An extension and refinement of the public-private dichotomy has been identified, maintaining general privacy guidelines above the dissemination of publications. As for filters, publications are preceded by the widespread use of image modification tools. Finally, the answers show the influence of personal agents, mostly friends and brothers, and technology agents, which determine the relationship between the type of story and the network where it is published.

     

中外早期期刊出版探究

中外早期期刊的出版均经历了一段较长时期的演变,才逐步发展到今天现代期刊的形式与规模。业界对早期期刊的出现、形成及其确立一直存在争议。以历史唯物主义的观点,探讨中外期刊初期的出版概况,并根据期刊的基本概念与出版规律给出明确的结论,对期刊出版发展的深入研究具有较强的历史和现实意义。     

Inconsistencies in everyday patterns of school rules

The aim of this study is to investigate and explain inconsistencies within the social constructions of school rules as they take shape in everyday interactions between teachers and students, and to explore how students interpret these inconsistencies. An ethnographic study is conducted in two primary schools in Sweden. According to the findings, implicit rules, i.e., unarticulated supplements or exceptions, can, at least in part, explain inconsistencies in teachers’ efforts to uphold explicit school rules to the explicit rules. Nevertheless, rule inconsistency and unarticulated implicit rules appear to create rule diffusion, which, in turn, creates a prediction loss among students. They cannot always predict what will be appropriate behaviour in particular situations, and how teachers will react to their behaviour. Furthermore, this appears to result in a negotiation loss for students. They cannot openly discuss and negotiate on rules if they are unaware of such rules.     

Electromagnetic Induction Rediscovered Using Original Texts

Some of Faraday's diary-entries from 1831 have been used frequently as starting point to introduce the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction. This has been done on various levels of knowledge and to pupils of different ages during the last 5 years. I try to let my pupils witness, how Faraday made his discovery, but to show as well, that we cannot infer from his notes, how he arrived at his ideas proper. Reading the original notes (in English), my pupils were expected to take out of it, what Faraday did at his lab, what apparatus he used and what his observations were. Why he did what he did was point of discussion later on. Just here, I expected, that my pupils learn a lot about the properties of electricity, of taking conclusions from experiment, of scientific methodology etc. In addition, we repeated some of Faradays experiments with modern quipment, realizing always to common surprise that the effects observed are extremely faint ones. Depending on knowledge, age and motivation of the group, Lenz's Law was rediscovered in succession. Here I myself try to find out, why Faradays initial mistake as for the direction of the induced current is likely to be overlooked even by the informed modern reader (myself included!). This may become part of a story, why this mistake of Faraday has found serious attention by historians of science only very recently. My approach was connected with group work with English courses, with the reading of more papers by Faraday and two times even with a visit of the Royal Institution at London. In any case, I always tried to put my pupils into the state of knowledge Faraday had at the time of his discovery before this unit, to make the process of discovery as correct as possible. For this claim is somewhat artificial at first glance, it may be an interesting point of discussion.     

学术期刊盈利指数与合理版面费的确定

近年来国内相当部分学术期刊滥收版面费现象引起各方关注,引出如何区分合理的版面费与盈利为目标的不合理版面费之问题,文章计算了国内哲学社会科学学术期刊的合理版面费数量,并进一步提出学术期刊盈利指数,为学术界、新闻出版总署、教育部等界定牟利学术期刊提供一个简便有效的客观方法。     

Education in the Realm of the Senses: Understanding Paulo Freire's Aesthetic Unconscious through Jacques Rancière

In this article I re‐examine the role that aesthetics play in Paulo Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed. As opposed to the vast majority of scholarship in this area, I suggest that aesthetics play a more centralised role in pedagogy above and beyond arts‐based curricula. To help clarify Freire's position, I will argue that underlying the linguistic resolution of the student/teacher dialectic in the problem‐posing classroom is an accompanying shift in the very aesthetics of recognition. In order to demonstrate the always already aesthetic nature of all education, I will turn to the aesthetic philosophy of Jacques Rancière. Through Rancière we can begin to understand how the pedagogy of the oppressed is predicated on an aesthetic redistribution of the sensible, of what can be seen and what can be heard. As Rancière will confirm, if we truly want to understand the aesthetics of pedagogy, we cannot simply see aesthetics as external to teaching and learning. Rather, education as an aesthetic event has to be taken seriously, and aesthetics should regain primacy in discussions of critical pedagogy.     

When and why do university managers use publication incentive payments?

Pay-for-performance schemes have become a widespread management strategy in the public sector. However, not much is known about the rationales that trigger the adoption of performance-related pay provisions. This article examines managerial and organisational features of university departments in Denmark that use publication incentive payments. Most often it is used when heads of department outside the humanities think it is a good idea to reward scholars financially for publications. In-depth analysis of the cases reveals, however, that department heads cannot simply be divided between ‘believers’ and ‘non-believers’. Almost half expressed confidence in that publication incentive payments motivate researchers to perform better, not because of the monetary reward, but because of the positive feedback signalled by the pay supplement.     

Perry,Fred L & Nichols,Joe D (2015) Understanding research in education Routledge (New York & London) isbn 978‐1‐138‐77642‐5 243 pp £34.99 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781138776425/

Ostensibly, this textbook was written for those who want and need to be consumers of educational research. It serves that readership extremely well. Equally, however, I would warmly recommend it to those preparing their first educational submissions for publication; they'll find splendid advice here about what to do—and what not to do. If this book is very likely to be relevant to your work, I strongly suggest that you buy a copy. John Cowan     

论逻辑在语言中的应用——评维特根斯坦的“可说”与“不可说”思想

维特根斯坦的《逻辑哲学论》中有一条贯穿始终的主线,那就是“界限”论,即什么可说、什么不可说,这也是维特根斯坦其它各种论题的基础。“可说”与“不可说”不仅是维特根斯坦阐述其哲学的主题,而且是维特根斯坦进行哲学思考的范式与界限。因此,理解维特根斯坦的“界限”论对于理解维特根斯坦的整个《逻辑哲学论》具有十分重要的意义。     

What limits the encoding effect of note-taking? A meta-analytic examination

Previous meta-analyses indicate that the overall encoding effect of note-taking is positive but modest. This meta-analysis of 57 note-taking versus no note-taking comparison studies explored what limits the encoding effect by examining the moderating influence of seven variables: intervention, schooling level, presentation mode and length, test mode, and publication year and source. It was found that (a) either positive interventions or rise in schooling level did not enhance the benefits of note-taking; (b) visual presentation of learning material interfered with the note-taking process, whereas longer presentation did not; (c) recall test detected the encoding effect more than recognition and higher-order performance tests; and (d) publication year and source contributed to the variation in effect sizes. These results suggest that the modest encoding effect is not due to the incompleteness of students’ spontaneous note-taking procedures, but mechanical demands of note-taking, type of learning outcome measure, and publication characteristics.     

Early Literacy Development in Toddlerhood: Publication Trends from 1990 to 2009

The paper examines publication trends in the United States regarding literacy development in toddlerhood from 1990 to 2009, exploring what features or elements of toddlers’ literacy development have been documented, and how they have been documented, over the last 20 years, to indicate areas for further exploration. Articles were carefully selected with predetermined exclusion criteria within five chosen databases that cover professional and scholarly peer-reviewed journals in a variety of areas in education. The selected articles then were analyzed and categorized with predefined categories: publication year, type of article, participants, methodology, research setting, and purpose(s) of study.     

论梁发在我国近代中文报乱创办中的作用与贡献

长期以来,梁发在近代中文报刊创办中所作出的贡献被忽视了。他在近代中文报刊初创时期已参与其中,曾先后参与《察世俗每月统记传》和《东西洋考每月统记传》的创办,从初期主要负责雕版印刷和发行,到后期还撰稿和负责编纂,在外国传教士不能胜任办刊工作时主动担负起了主要编辑出版的职责。梁发是我国近代中文报业的先驱,他的办刊实践应视作华人参与我国近代中文报纸办刊的启肇。     

高校学报审稿程序的优化

高校学报作为反映高校教学、科研成果的学术理论刊物,其内容一般包括多种学科.编辑工作是整个刊物出版工作的中心,审稿则是编辑工作的中心环节,是保证学报质量的关键.针对高校学报来稿中普遍存在的问题、学报审稿中存在的问题和审稿流程存在的问题,优化设计了责编初审、专家外审、责编复审、主编终审的审稿流程,使得对来稿的处理趋于合理.     

罗莎·卢森堡资本积累思想述评

《资本积累论》是罗莎·卢森堡最著名的经济理论著作。在这部著作中,卢森堡以马克思再生产理论为中心,提出在只有工人和资本家两个阶级的封闭的资本主义环境中资本积累无法实现的观点,强调非资本主义市场是解决资本积累问题不可或缺的因素。这部著作发表后,引起当时理论家的广泛关注,争论不断。用历史的眼光来看待卢森堡资本积累理论的价值及其所做出的贡献,对于我们认识当代国际资本的本质,反思全球化与中国的社会主义市场经济发展具有重大的理论意义和现实意义。     

Regulating Academic Pressure: From Fast to Slow

This paper investigates the impact of publication pressure on the ethics and the scientific integrity in the domain of mathematics and of the arts. Both research fields are specific in their methodology, being that they do not start from a classical hypothesis and researchers in these areas are not knowing what the outcome will be. The research design is open, and creativity is a main part of the research investigation. Both research fields do not rely on empirical cases nor on data collection or data handling. This could be a reason why mathematics and arts seem to be less subject to scientific misconduct. After presenting the (inter)national regulations on ethics and integrity, we will investigate a philosophical analysis in which we consider possible influences from publication pressure that became widespread over all disciplines. We will clarify if and how mathematics and the arts are sensitive to scientific research misconduct or questionable research practices.