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Prof, noone is reading you Students at a University of Pennsylvania'sWharton School lecture in San Francisco. Even if scholars agree on theimportance of publishing in the popular media, the system plays against them.Publications in peer-reviewed journals continue to be the Studentsat a University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School lecture in San Francisco. Evenif scholars agree on the importance of publishing in the popular media, thesystem plays against them. Publications in peer-reviewed journals continue tobe the key performance indicator within academia: whether anyone reads them isa secondary consideration.PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Anaverage academic journal article is read in its entirety by about 10 people. Toshape policy, professors should start penning commentaries in popular media. Asit K.Biswas And Julian Kirchherr MANY ofthe world's most talented thinkers may be university professors, but sadly mostof them are not shaping today's public debates or influencing policies. Indeed,scholars often frown upon publishing in the popular media. "Running anopinion editorial to share my views with the public? Sounds like activism tome," a professor recently noted at a conference, hosted by the Universityof Oxford. Theabsence of professors from shaping public debates and policies seems to haveexacerbated in recent years, particularly in social sciences. In the1930s and 1940s, 20 per cent of articles in the prestigious The American PoliticalScience Review focused on policy recommendations. At the last count, the sharewas down to a meagre 0.3 per cent. Evendebates among scholars do not seem to function properly. Up to 1.5 millionpeer-reviewed articles are published annually. However, many are ignored evenwithin scientific communities - 82 per cent of articles published in humanitiesare not even cited once. No one ever refers to 32 per cent of the peer-reviewedarticles in the social and 27 per cent in the natural sciences. If a paperis cited, this does not imply it has actually been read. According to oneestimate, only 20 per cent of papers cited have actually been read. We estimatethat an average paper in a peer-reviewed journal is read completely by no morethan 10 people. Hence, impacts of most peer-reviewed publications even withinthe scientific community are minuscule. Manyscholars aspire to contribute to their discipline's knowledge and to influencepractitioners' decision-making. However,practitioners very rarely read articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Weknow of no senior policymaker or senior business leader who ever read regularlyany peer-reviewed papers in well-recognised journals like Nature, Science orLancet. Nowonder. Mostjournals are difficult to access and prohibitively expensive for anyone outsideof academia. Even ifthe current open-access movement becomes more successful, the incomprehensiblejargon and the sheer volume and lengths of papers (often unnecessary!) wouldstill prevent practitioners (including journalists) from reading andunderstanding them. Brevityis central. Many government leaders now maintain a standing instruction toprepare a two-page summary every morning of what the popular media writes aboutthem and their policies. In India, this was practised by former prime ministerIndira Gandhi. Many ministers in Canada insist on similar round-ups.Governments in the Middle East now even request summaries of discussions on newsocial media. We arenot aware of a single minister anywhere in the world who has ever wantedregular summaries of scientific publications in areas of their interest. Ifacademics want to have an impact on policymakers and practitioners, they mustconsider popular media, which has been ignored by them - although media firmshave developed many innovative business models to help scholars reach out. Oneeffective model is Project Syndicate (PS), a non-profit organisation, whichdistributes commentary by the world's thought leaders to more than 500newspapers comprising 300 million readers in 154 countries. Any commentaryaccepted by PS may be translated into up to 12 other languages and thendistributed globally to the entire network. Even ifscholars agree on the importance of publishing in the popular media, the systemplays against them. In orderto obtain tenure, scholars must churn out as many peer-reviewed articles inhigh-impact journals as possible. Publications in (prestigious) peer-reviewedjournals continue to be the key performance indicator within academia: whetheranyone reads them becomes a secondary consideration. If thehighest impact journal in the water field is considered, it has only foursubscribers in India with a population of some 1.3 billion. Three years ago,neither the water minister nor those three levels below him had even heard ofthis journal. While a publication in such a journal will bring kudos to aprofessor, its impact on policymaking in India, where water is a very criticalissue, is zero. It maybe about time to re-assess scholars' performance. For tenure and promotionconsiderations, their impact on policy formulation and public debates shouldalso be assessed. Thesepublications often showcase the practical relevance and potential applicationof the research results to solve real world problems, and ability tocommunicate in a simple, understandable manner. Admittedly,impact is not guaranteed. Many policymakers already have a reasonably exactidea on the policy option they prefer. The policymust, first and foremost, satisfy their plethora of stakeholders. Very fewdecision-makers look only for the most optimal economic, social, environmental,technical, or political solution. Thosewho look for scientific evidence would vastly benefit from more publications byscholars in the popular media. Slowly, this is recognised within academia. Forinstance, the National University of Singapore now encourages its faculty tolist op-eds in their profiles. However, significantly more emphasis is stillbeing given to publications in so-called high-impact journals. Changeis happening but at snail's pace. AsitBiswas, a leading authority on environmental and water policy, is distinguishedvisiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the NationalUniversity of Singapore. JulianKirchherr is a doctoral researcher at the School of Geography and theEnvironment, University of Oxford. He was with McKinsey & Co before that,advising governments in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. 这篇文章道出大学教授们产出的困境。平均来说，一篇学术文章只有十个人阅读呀！32%的社科学科文章没人引用，82%的人文学科文章没人引用（主要指英文文章）professor, no one is reading you！An average academicjournal article is read in its entirety by about 10 people. 文章建议除了考核学者的学术发表，还要加上他们对政策决定的影响，例如在媒体上的爆光率和在媒体上发表的文章数量。 编辑：陈心茹
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发表于 2019-1-4 20:13:53
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