Solidly promote the construction of an evaluation system for academic achievements

In the face of the realistic needs of social development for academic production and innovation, only by devoting ourselves to the production of academic achievements in innovation and truth-seeking can we truly and effectively meet the practical requirements of social development for intellectual resources and intellectual support. The prosperity and development of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics full of the spirit of the times, and the high-quality promotion of the publication of rich and colorful academic achievements, are important tasks in the practical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

On October 15, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out at the forum on literary and art work: "In terms of literary and artistic creation, there is also a phenomenon of lack of quantity and quality, and there is a 'plateau' and a lack of 'peak'. This deafening statement has triggered many reflections on literary and art workers. On May 17, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping further emphasized at the Philosophy and Social Science Work Forum: "Whether our philosophy and social science have Chinese characteristics depends on whether there is subjectivity and originality in the final analysis. Following the trend of following others is not only difficult to form a philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics, but also unable to solve the actual problems of the mainland. "The realization of academic values and academic ideals is inseparable from the innovative expression of academic achievements. General Secretary Xi Jinping reminds us that we must not only be scholars who "work and wait for the body", but also scholars who "work with the heart"; not only to "study for academic purposes", but also to "be the pursuers and disseminators of truth, goodness and beauty", and "to achieve self-achievement and realize value in the speech of virtue for the motherland and the people".

In the practice of academic publishing and dissemination, monographs and papers are the two main forms of expression of academic achievements. According to statistics, in 2020, there were 331,000 kinds of humanities books published by the national publishing house, a decrease of 4.0% compared with 2019; 1.06 billion philosophical and social science journals were published nationwide, accounting for 52.2% of the total number of periodicals printed, an increase of 1.3 percentage points. The proportion of journals in philosophy and social sciences continues to increase compared with 2019. According to the web of science database statistics, from 2012 to 2021, the number of scientific research papers published in China showed a continuous growth trend, ranking second in the world for 10 consecutive years. In May 2021, China surpassed the United States to take the lead in the world. At the same time, the quality and citation of SCI papers in China have also continued to improve. Observing the reality of the current publication of academic achievements, "few monographs, more papers" seems to have become a trend, and the academic evaluation work has also undergone corresponding changes, which has aroused the attention of many scholars.

Optimize the academic evaluation and assessment system

In the sense of ensuring high-quality academic publications, academic papers have the distinctive characteristics of short length, concentrated problems, and compact logic compared with academic monographs. With the help of the rapid dissemination advantage of the journal publication cycle, the publication of academic insights is increasingly valued by the academic community. However, as an important carrier of knowledge dissemination and exchange, the publication of academic works and journals is also an important part of scientific research. "Few monographs, many papers" is an objective phenomenon that exists in the current academic circles. Wang Lanping, former director of the Political and Legal Editorial Office of the Academic Center of the Commercial Press, was quite emotional about this: "Our quantitative indicators of higher education assessment only focus on core journal papers, resulting in scholars writing only papers without monographs. The publication of academic works needs to be funded, and the limited resources funded by the National Social Science Fund are not universal, and the enthusiasm for writing monographs is constrained. Under expediency, writing only papers becomes a natural choice for most people. Wang Lanping suggested that higher education assessment should break the paper index system, and journal management should break the data impact factor cult.

Ma Lai, president of Northwest University Press, believes that at present, academic units such as universities and scientific research institutions generally implement the management of quantitative assessment standards and points system, and the proportion of scores in the evaluation system is large. Although monographs are also given different scores due to different levels of publishing houses, the proportion of scores of monographs is significantly lower than that of the points statistics of papers.

Qin Kaifeng, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Humanities, described her feelings this way: As far as academic research is concerned, the papers are limited by space, and most of them are in-depth research on a professional issue; while monographs are systematic and in-depth, and most of them have the characteristics of combining general knowledge and problem research. Normally speaking, the monograph is the culmination of a certain aspect of the scholar's knowledge, representing the author's highest research level; the paper is more of a reflection of the phased results. The two complement each other and together constitute the academic achievements of scholars with a certain thickness and breadth.

"In humanities and social science research, the results of the thesis should be unified with the results of the monograph, or the results of the thesis are the process of moving towards the results of the monograph." In the view of Ren Xiaowei, vice president of Shaanxi Normal University, the reason for the situation of "few monographs and many papers" is nothing more than the orientation of scientific research evaluation or the utilitarianization of scientific research. In all kinds of scientific research evaluations, many times the evaluation of a good monograph is much lower than that of a high-level journal paper. The formation of a monograph requires a relatively long period of thinking and research around a large proposition. The formation of thesis results, relatively speaking, the energy and effort are still much less, so the number of thesis results in the given time is much more than the monograph results. This has also made the output model centered on the results of papers gradually formed in modern humanities and social science research, and the results of monographs have become necessary supplements.

Qin Kaifeng believes that the reason for this phenomenon is also related to the different institutional mechanisms of the main body of academic publishing, that is, the publishing institutions. The enterprise-oriented management model of monograph publishing institutions relies more on the market to allocate resources, and marketization has become a prominent feature of publishing houses, and paid publishing once made publications uneven. Although the requirements for publication quality have increased in recent years, it is also an unavoidable fact that the relative ease of publication of works is also an unavoidable fact. The publishing units of the papers are mostly public welfare institutions, and the "transformation of enterprises and restructuring" has not landed, and academic quality is still the core evaluation index. Especially in the grading system of paper evaluation system, authoritative or core journals strictly control the quality through a series of review measures, so that the publication of papers is more stringent, often publishing the author's academic masterpieces or masterpieces. The difference between the two is relatively simply applied by the evaluation institution to the formulation of evaluation indicators, which in turn guides academic researchers to have different attitudes towards the two publishing forms, prompting scholars to focus more on publishing high-quality papers.

In recent years, with the development of digital technology, the actual total number of papers and capacity of Internet digital journals have increased significantly, and the traditional printing attributes of journals have been weakened. In the open access publishing model, readers' access to digital knowledge is no longer entirely based on their preferred journal as the sole resource goal, but directly searches for well-known authors in various databases or academic keywords of interest to them through a multi-element approach. The unique academic influence and resource access of journal brands in the traditional sense are being replaced by the "knowledge-centered" diversified academic publishing pattern. This will naturally promote the corresponding adjustment of the elements and structure of the current academic achievement evaluation system.

Carry forward the excellent study style and pay attention to academic quality

There is a view that the phenomenon of "few monographs and many papers" is the external manifestation of the impetuous academic style of academic research. This phenomenon reveals that when a small number of scholars do research, they are impetuous, shallow in their achievements, and exaggerated in theory, and they are not comfortable engaged in systematic, solid, and in-depth academic research, but instead float in the light, taste shallow, and shoddy, only seeking quantity and disregarding quality, which runs counter to the rational, calm, rigorous, and realistic fashion that academic research should have. This unhealthy style of study endangers the healthy development of philosophy and social sciences.

Qin Kaifeng believes that at present, whether it is an individual's degree, title or evaluation of the school, there are various evaluation indicators, and papers, monographs, topics, etc. are included. Because monographs often require thick academic accumulation, in the impetuous academic environment, relatively "short and fast" papers naturally become the primary choice for utilitarian "academic survival", which also exacerbates the phenomenon of "few monographs and many papers" to a certain extent.

A good study style is the basis for the flourishing development of philosophy and social sciences. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that to prosper and develop the philosophy and social sciences of the mainland, it is necessary to "vigorously carry forward the excellent study style, combine soft constraints and hard measures, promote the formation of an excellent study style that advocates fine products, strict management of learning, pays attention to integrity, and emphasizes responsibility, and creates a clean and healthy atmosphere, mutual learning and mutual learning, and a positive academic ecology." In order for the academic community to undertake the mission of the times of academic service to the country and realize the lofty ideal of doing scholarship for the people, it must create a good academic ecology. Scholars should aspire to do university questions and do real research; scientific research management departments should improve academic norms and academic systems, and optimize the evaluation mechanism of academic achievements.

"The bench has to sit cold for ten years." Humanities and social science research requires a long period of accumulation process, and the academic maturity period for scholars to construct a more complete knowledge system will be longer. Wang Lanping advocates equal age of academic labor rights, while paying attention to cultivating academic newcomers, it is necessary to make appropriate use of the advantages of the resources of older mature scholars, open up research-oriented postdoctoral work to them, open up the channels for scientific research project declarations, strengthen thematic research in a targeted manner, finely formulate the national (local) development strategy of academic planning, seize the age range of scholars' monographs, adjust the layout of academic human resources in a timely manner, gradually promote the publication and production of academic monographs, and strengthen the orderly expansion of the quantity and quality of monographs.

"Enduring loneliness is an important test of scholars' concept of fame and fortune. The root cause of impetuous academic style is that scholars have not established correct academic beliefs and pursuits. Malay said: "To do learning, we must concentrate on the pursuit of truth, and we must not envy fame and fortune." Although the results cannot be produced for the time being and are not paid attention to, we must also be like Liu Danian, Fan Wenlan, Mr. Zhang Yizhi and other scholars of the older generation, really do learning, do real learning, be willing to be lonely, cannot learn impetuous style, and rush to achieve quick success. Xu Yong, a professor at Central China Normal University, agrees with this view. Research orientation should be implemented in practice, and paying attention to academic quality is the attitude of governance. ”

Strengthen the construction of the platform and enhance the academic discourse power

Guo Taihui, a professor at the Institute of Ethnic Politics of Yunnan University, made the following analysis of the phenomenon of "few monographs and many papers." From the perspective of academic production, the demand for intellectual supply in the actual environment of rapid social development is becoming increasingly strong, which will inevitably have a demand-side impact on the operation of the academic production mechanism; from the perspective of academic production, the phenomenon or problem of intellectuals seeking benefits and avoiding harm in the process of knowledge production cannot be avoided. The external demand environment affects the operation of the internal mechanism, resulting in the temporary phenomenon of "few monographs and many papers" in the process of academic production, academic evaluation and academic dissemination, which is also a real problem in the process of social development. At the same time, academic production and dissemination also has a process, and in general, monographs are produced and published for much longer than journal papers. "Putting the two together for quantitative comparison doesn't make much sense. Strengthening and optimizing the construction of academic platforms is fundamental. Gou said.

"We can't put all the blame on the evaluation system and the assessment system. The number of quantities is not a problem, the quality is the problem. Many academic achievements are long-winded but lack innovation, whether it is the publication of monographs or the dissemination of journal papers, which is a big problem. On the basis of respecting the differences and different characteristics of disciplines, going down to the grassroots level, going into the field, producing more academic masterpieces, providing effective academic support for national governance and social development, and telling the story of China's development to the world should become the direction of the academic research efforts of most social science scholars. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen guidance in the setting of social science topics, social science appraisal awards, and promotion of social science scholars, and use the construction of high-quality academic evaluation systems to promote the generation of innovative mechanisms, and then encourage scholars to go out of the study hall and enter the main battlefield of reform and opening up. It is necessary to use theory to guide practice, discover problems in practice, and improve the quality of theory. Guo Jianshu, secretary of the party group and executive vice chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Social Sciences, said.

In the face of the magnificent development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on the prosperity and development of philosophy and social sciences is the guide of the times for philosophical and social science workers to forge ahead. Interpreting Chinese practice, constructing Chinese theories, disseminating Chinese spirit and Chinese values, and striving to produce more research results that can withstand the test of practice, the people, and history, it has become the practical consciousness of more and more philosophical and social science workers. Solidly promoting the construction of the academic achievement evaluation system and providing strong intellectual support for the great cause has a decisive impact.

Academic quality, academic evaluation and academic platform are the three basic elements for constructing academic discourse. To enhance the international academic discourse power, academic subjects need to put forward leading academic theories, concepts and categories within a certain time and space scope and academic field, and strive to create an academic discourse system that integrates China and foreign countries. Philosophical and social science academic journals and monograph publishing institutions are an important platform for disseminating academic achievements, an important carrier for promoting academic innovation, and a main window for international academic circles to observe and understand the development of philosophy and social sciences on the mainland. Only by establishing a scientifically authoritative academic evaluation system and further giving full play to the role of academic leadership can we promote academic production and academic dissemination with Chinese characteristics to be stable and far-reaching, create new concepts, new categories and new expressions that are easy to be understood and accepted by the international community, continuously promote the construction and innovation of discipline systems, academic systems, and discourse systems, promote academic research between China and the world to carry out dialogue on an equal footing, and concentrate on expressing the self-confidence power of knowledge change and ideological leadership.

Editor: Liu Yan