[Todos] La carrera de las ratas

[fvicent en dm.uba.ar]

David K Smith
University of Exeter

Moshe Sniedovich
Melbourne University

Dear Colleagues:

The real world is not a nice place lo live in, and I face it by writing
satyrical pieces. However my second letter was answered by both of you in
a serious tone, so I will let aside the humourly genre; let me try to
describe the problem as seriously and briefly as possible.

My job for 30 year was that of an OR consultant. Mind you, not as an
academic but a professional. In the nineties Argentina was stricken by an
economical chaos a.k.a. neoliberalism. I lost my job, and that forced me
to reenter my alma mater: Buenos Aires University . BAU is divided into 13
units and one of them is the School of Sciences which contains 13
departments: Math, Physics, Computer Science, Geology, Biology, Chemistry,
etc.

In the math dept I was forced to write papers for journals, what they call
the publish or perish policy. This is used as a procedure to drain off the
congestion of people. In fact the school of sciences has a real problem:
there is no place for a scientist outside academy in Argentina. So
students, after getting their diploma, try to stay in school to follow an
academic career... and what they find is a rat race.

The diabolic procedure is as follows. Once every 7 years you have to face
a contest they call "concurso". What this means is that they publish your
post in the newspapers inviting anyone who feels that he is better than
you to kick you off your chair. Let me call these candidates A,B and C.
They proceed by counting papers. If your number is greater than the
maximum of A,B,C then you can stay for the following 7 years. Otherwise
you are given the sack. There is no such a thing as a tenure. The ordeal
recurs until either you are terminated, or you are retired at 65 or you
die of heart attack.

It is then crystal clear that making up papers is a foremost objective for
the academic. Mind you they count the number of papers not the content. It
follows that the academical output is mainly academical garbage.

It is my own impression that something really wrong happened since I got
my diploma in 1963 because I dont recall such beastly rat race in the
past. What was it? When did it happen? What was Saint Paul's vision in his
way to Damascus?

Best regards,

Fabio