[Todos] The S-shaped bullshitting function

[fabio vicentini]

Buenos Aires, August 24, 2013

Subject: Inquiry on academic research

 "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 striking a camelo
attitude.

 In 1995 I reentered my alma mater as a professor, and  I found that
"professor" was not just a teacher, now he had a new enhanced title: he is
a "researcher" (docente-investigador). This  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.

 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.

 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.

 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?

 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.

 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.

 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?  I will regard your answer as confidential.

 Sincerely,

Fabio Vicentini

OR consultant

fmvicent en gmail.com

--------------------------------

NOTA: Esta carta fue enviada a un centenar de colegas extranjeros


<fmvicent en gmail.com>
------------ próxima parte ------------
Se ha borrado un adjunto en formato HTML...
URL: http://mail.df.uba.ar/pipermail/todos/attachments/20130824/132c606f/attachment.html