The author emphasizes China, but the massive incentive to publish papers based on volume with little/no consideration for reputation of the journal in question, is prevalent in a number of different national systems.
China just has a disproportionate impact because of the size. It's not unique, and the comments talking about this being some aspect of China or the character of the Chinese are, I think, missing the mark. This is just humans responding to clear incentives.
> China just has a disproportionate impact because of the size.
Hugh no, fake papers and total disregard to ethics in general has always been a huge problem in China. Remember, China is still a poor contrary to what they claim, and its academic population is therefore small in comparison the rest of the developed world.
I'm not necessarily talking about developed world systems. I encounter these same incentives when working with researchers in Africa and other parts of Asia. But many commenters are making this inherently Chinese:
"Is there a good analysis somewhere of pragmatism in Chinese culture?"
"I lived in China for 6 months. This fits my experience, and is remarkably similar to a story I was told by a native Chinese:
'We were taught in school about Mao, who rose to power on idealism. At first he showed us many great things that we could do, but eventually idealism led us to the great famine, and many people starved. Since then, Mao lost some power, and now in school they teach us that Mao was 2/3 right, but 1/3 wrong. And that 1/3 that was wrong was idealism. So now we practice pragmatism.'"
"In China, the concept of shame [in contrast to guilt] is widely accepted due to Confucian teachings"
"ADV China talk about this a lot. China is basically a low trust society where amoral opportunism is not only tolerated but also expected, as long its 'chabuduo' (just good enough)."
etc. etc.
It's just as silly to talk about that as it would be to talk about the inherent pragmatism of the Tanzanians.
It is, again, just people responding to very clear incentives, and the market rising to meet them.
China just has a disproportionate impact because of the size. It's not unique, and the comments talking about this being some aspect of China or the character of the Chinese are, I think, missing the mark. This is just humans responding to clear incentives.