<div dir="ltr"><p><span lang="EN-US">Buenos
Aires, August 24, 2013</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Subject:
Inquiry on academic research<span> </span></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> "Camelo"
is an Argentinian slang term difficult to translate. It is an umbrella word
covering different meanings all centered in deception: pretense, fake,
bullshit, etc. "Camelero" is a fellow </span><span>striking a camelo attitude</span><span lang="EN-US">. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> In 1995 I
reentered my alma mater as a professor, and<span>
</span>I found that "professor" was not just a teacher, now he had a
new enhanced title: he is a "researcher" (docente-investigador).
This<span> </span>stresses the fact that he
endeavours himself to the enterprise of discovering new truths of the Universe
which is much more important than the menial task of teaching. Let me emphasize
the point, a plain professor should not belong to our school, his place is in a
lower institution named "tertiary". In our school a professor
researchs, which actually means that he publishes papers in peer-reviewed
journals.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I am making
a research on paper publishing at my school which I do not intend
to publish. Let me explain what is the subject of my inquiry.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> When I was
a student (1955) the professor was a teacher and he will write a book. Also he
might publish a paper if he had a novelty or something important to communicate
to his fellow academics. Nowadays the researcher-professor is under the
pressure of writing papers lest he losses his job, and it is clear, without
much pondering, that he is publishing rubbish.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Now, this is
my question: When did our professors became cameleros? That is, when did his
papers output switched from a linear to an exponential growth. And what was the
cause of this turning point, was it gradual or a discontinuity jump?</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I think
that we could exhibit the phenomenum by plotting the number of papers per capita
as a function of time as an S-shaped increasing function having an inflexion
point in the nineties when the World Bank bureaucrats thought up a plan for
Higher Education for Latin America and the Caribbean.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> The idea
ocurred to me because a colleague of mine suspected a noteworthy papers
increase just about the time Carlos Menem, one of our most corrupt
presidents we ever had,
was anxious to fulfill the directions posed to him by the American
master. I
tried to obtain the aforementioned curve by plotting data from my math
department. Unfortunately our data is statistically scant prior to 2000.
At present, my colleagues let fly two papers per solar year on the
average.<br></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I will
appreciate your comments. Even a simple yes/no response to the query: Are your
professors being forced to publish rubbish for fear of losing his job?<span> </span>I will regard your answer as confidential. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Sincerely,</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Fabio
Vicentini</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">OR
consultant</span></p>
<p><a href="mailto:fmvicent@gmail.com" target="_blank">fmvicent@gmail.com</a></p><p>--------------------------------<br></p><p>NOTA: Esta carta fue enviada a un centenar de colegas extranjeros<br></p><p><a href="mailto:fmvicent@gmail.com" target="_blank"><br>
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