Publishing ESP Research. An Unsettled Research Mantra

Abstract

Academics are churning out 100,000s of pages of research that will never be read. They do it for various reasons, especially to show the university hierarchy that the academic is an essential cog in the wheel without which the university cannot survive. Of course, the infamous H index, so ill thought out also shapes the desire to publish. The refrain, ‘what your H’ is one they ask. Of course, getting past H10 is not easy – and the system is so fundamentally flawed that academics in Indonesia know how to manipulate the publishing system and receive high Hs in the 10+ mark without their paper ever being read. And there is no alternative as the likes of the major publishers absolutely rely on the complexity of the system to stay in business. Nowadays with over  25,000 universities all competing for the elusive research dollar to survive that means they require more and more publications to boost their fame knowing full well they are deceiving the world, for its all about money and grants, and only unlimited publishing can generate that massive income which keeps  not only universities in business, but the large multinationals like Springer, SCOPUS, Elseveir who require unlimited publishing output  to feed their shareholders handsome  dividends.

It is a commercial juggernaut that is manipulated by many in the know. So the theme of this paper takes up where the learned professors named in the title left off- namely  that papers should only be 3,000 words long – that saves countless wasted hours that the academic could better  put into teaching his/her  student – it also simply tells the story in a fraction of the words that historical publishing has demanded for no reason apart from making some review editors a an item on the Editorial Board ( this helps their university standing) and allows the editors to advise their employers  that  they are an Editor of an online research journal. And hence the eminent sense in academics publishing much shorter papers, and stop putting wasted hours into a piece of paper that will never be read and instead put that time and effort in to securing great future for their undergraduates.