<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">fabio vicentini</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:fmvicent@gmail.com">fmvicent@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 12:40 AM<br>Subject: Informe sobre la corrupcion en Exactas - Parte 27<br>To: "<a href="mailto:m.sniedovich@ms.unimelb.edu.au">m.sniedovich@ms.unimelb.edu.au</a>" <<a href="mailto:m.sniedovich@ms.unimelb.edu.au">m.sniedovich@ms.unimelb.edu.au</a>>, "D.K.Smith" <<a href="mailto:D.K.Smith@exeter.ac.uk">D.K.Smith@exeter.ac.uk</a>><br>
<br><br><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right" align="right"><span lang="EN-US">Buenos Aires, November 28, 2013 </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Dear colleagues:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Subject: The
Academic ‘Camelo’<span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">"Camelo"
is an Argentine slang term difficult to translate. It is an umbrella word
covering different meanings all centered upon deception: pretense, fake,
bullshit, etc. "Camelero" is an individual under suspicion of
fabricating camelo. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">-------</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Let me
divide operations researchers in two categories 1) Those whose main job is to
lecture on OR techniques, and publish papers . I called them
“academics” 2) Those whose main job is to apply OR tecniques to solve problems outside
the academy. I call them “practitioners”. I worked as a practitioner for 30
years at industrial concerns, and never met another practitioner aside from
myself. In 1993 I lost my job in industry, and reentered my alma mater: the
school of sciences.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Now, let me
divide professors at my school in two categories 1) Those whose main job is to
lecture, and publish papers . I called them “academics” 2) Those whose main job
is to lecture, and<span> </span>do consulting jobs
outside academy. I called them “practitioners”. I was the only practitioner in
the whole school, and they gave me the sack because I did not publish papers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">At present I
am retired. <span> </span>Having nothing to do I am making
a research on the academic publishing racket. Let me explain what the subject
of my inquiry is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">When I was
a student (1960) the professor might write a book. Also he might publish a
paper, but that was not usual. Nowadays the professor is under the pressure of
writing papers lest he losses his job, and it is clear, without much pondering,
that he mainly publishes rubbish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Now here
are my queries: When did our teachers became cameleros? When the publishing
output switched from a linear tendency to an exponential growth. What was the
cause of the upturning point? Was it gradual or a discontinuity jump?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I think
that we can exhibit the phenomenum by plotting the number of papers per capita
as an S-shaped function having an inflexion point in the nineties when the
World Bank bureaucrats thought up a plan on higher education for the banana
republics.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span><span lang="EN-US">The idea
ocurred to me when a colleague told me of a noteworthy papers increase when
Carlos Menem, the most corrupt, clownish president since our founding fathers,
was anxious to fulfill the directions posed to him by the American master. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I tried to
obtain the aforementioned curve by plotting data from the math department
faculty records. Unfortunately our data is statistically scant prior to 2000. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I wonder if
you people can smell some camelo in your own milieu. If you do, I will much
appreciate it if you add some satirical elements to my own. Mind you, I may
expose your data urbi et orbi and won’t give you any credit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Best wishes,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Fabio </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
</div>
</div><br></div>