Nature has an article and editorial on a new Korean policy to pay Korean researchers every time they publish an article in an elite journal. If (like me) you don't have access, here's a summary from SciDev.net:
Starting later this month, South Korean researchers will receive three million won (US$3,000) if they are leading authors of papers published in key journals. The relevant journals will be chosen by a ten-member committee of government officials and researchers, and will probably include Nature, Science and Cell. Researchers will be rewarded if they are first or corresponding authors of a paper.
Similar practices are already widespread elsewhere. In China scientists can receive more than ten times this amount. In Pakistan bonuses have dramatically increased the number of papers that researchers publish, and advocates say the money compensates for low academic wages.
Critics argue bonuses encourage scientific fraud and that rushing to produce as many papers as possible reduces the quality of research (see China must address the roots of scientific fraud). But others counter that the journal's peer review system remains independent so that the system only rewards good work.
An accompanying editorial in this week's Nature argues that nations should try to avoid such crude 'cash-per-paper' incentives, and tailor rewards to promote the ethical pursuit of scientific truth.
Comment. Two quick responses.
When South Africa addressed the same underlying concern, that its research was not sufficiently visible, it decided to recommend green and gold open access. See the May 2006 report of the Academy of Science of South Africa and the key excerpts from it in my blog post for May 9, 2006. This is a much more sensible solution for countries facing the same problem. Second-best would be to pay the article processing fees at the OA journals that charge fees rather than simply to pay authors without any assurance that their research will be more widely accessible.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
