Should Online Essays Be Used in Academic Evaluations?

chinas current academic evaluation system sees publications in core journals as a basic index to measure the academic qualification and quality of an academic institute， a university or an individual. individuals who have more essays published in first-class journals will have bigger opportunities for promotion within the academic system. As a result， those who want to get a higher professional title or get promoted face fierce competition to have their essays published in the limited amount of core academic journals available.

Zhejiang university， based in hangzhou city， east chinas Zhejiang Province， is one of chinas most prestigious universities. the university has recently issued a document that offers an alternative to this widelyaccepted principle. its new practice says that individuals who have their academic essays published on the websites of influential magazines or wechat public accounts， such as Peoples Daily and other state-level media outlets， and get more than 100，000 likes for an essay， will be regarded as tantamount to having an essay published in a core journal. this essay will thus be adopted as an important reference for promotion or other personal academic evaluation.

soon after this new practice was announced， chinese academia was vocal in their acceptance and condemnation of its innovation. some believe its an improvement that reforms the current academic evaluation standards and that it is in keeping with modern technology， as social media such as wechat and weibo public accounts are already influential communication platforms across the country. however， others argue that this new practice will damage the solemnity of academic essays.

PRO

Wang qingfeng Nanfang Daily

The move is good for spreading knowledge. Nowadays， academic essays are mostly published in academic journals， but some of these journals are limited to a small academic circle and some only have a circulation of several thousand. In some extreme cases， authors of these essays may even brag about their articles within this small circle， which might prevent the overall progress of a certain academic branch. To a large extent， to make use of media platforms will help to spread academic essays， or it can be seen as a supplement to the old method that solely depends on core journals. In this sense， Zhejiang Universitys new practice amounts to an innovation in the academic evaluation system.

However， it is important to point out that， although the channels and methods of publishing academic essays are variable， the rigid academic standard can never be changed. Academic committees still have to impose stringent evaluation rules on essays that have huge numbers of readers in influential journals. The standards for ar- ticles in core journals are also the same as those for articles on the Internet.

Scientific research， teaching or other work all have their respective rules to follow. We need to respect these rules and different evaluation standards， as this will help to improve colleges comprehensive academic evaluation system. We hope that the new practice proposed by Zhejiang University will help to inspire new innovative momentum in Chinas scientific research arena.

CON

Wang Shu

Teacher in Beijing

The practice will damage the solemnity of academic essays. College teachers， scientific researchers and other academic personnel will begin to spend more time winning so-called fame for them， instead of focusing on academic research. Besides， the amount of hits for a certain essay is not necessarily connected with the quality of the article， as many popular online articles actually feature trivial matters such as rumors and publicity stunts in entertainment circles， while serious articles attract far fewer readers. In this sense， if they are to attract ordinary readers eyeballs， academic essays risk being transformed into shallow and superficial articles. Finally， even if it is well received on new media platforms， an essay does not necessarily have high academic value. In addition， producing fake numbers of hits is also technically possible. Thus， this new practice is quite doubtable and its hard to imagine the kind of impact it might have on Chinas academic evaluation system.

CON

Xu Bin

Science and Technology Daily

Academic research is totally different from communication. The former aims at expanding the recognition of humanity. Whether a paper is good or not， and whether it deepens peoples understanding of the unknown world should be decided by professionals not the general public. Articles from social media outlets focus on communicating a story， deviating from the purpose of scientific research.

Turning from core academic journals to mass media will not change the essaycentered academic evaluation system. Intellectuals will just shift their energies to cater to the public and adopt the requirements of mass media outlets. They will not be able explore the academic world via this method and the new practice may create a loophole for some opportunists.

PRO

he Mei

China Youth Daily

In order to reach a higher professional title， intellectuals work very hard to get their essays published in core journals. There is even a gray industrial chain that provides fake essays for those who want to get promoted but have no excellent essays of their own. The single， solidified， and essay-centered academic evaluation system is to be blamed for the mess. Professional title evaluations and masters or Ph.D. degree awards all depend on whether the person has essays published in the limited number of authoritative core journals. People in academia have long appealed that core journals are not academic judges and by no means should professional titles be decided on this basis. Some essays published in core journals run to tens of thousands of words， but most of them are extracts taken from others masterpieces or excellent research essays.

PRO

Zhang Xiaoran

cinic.org.cn

For so many years， the criteria for promotion of college teachers or institute researchers have been based on the number of essays they have published in core journals. In this sense， Zhejiang University is innovative in setting up new criteria for promotion： the influence or communication effect of an essay. Even if someone does not have a lot of scientific research results to boast of， his or her limited achievements will be regarded as valuable material to shore up their promotion and academic evaluation， if their work brings about major influence through new communication channels like the Internet.

Zhejiang University has made a big step forward by moving the emphasis also to the effect of an essays circulation. In the long run， this practice can not only change the old habit of core journals outweighing all other factors， but will also make it possible for intellectuals to provide more opinions on social and public life.

To break the old rule of taking core journal publications as a criterion is already a trend， but it still needs further discussion as to whether the number of readers can equate to the academic value of an essay. Generally speaking， we cant take it for granted that the bigger the number is， the more valuable the essay is. Obviously， nowadays， entertainment news or chicken soup for the soul tends to attract numerous readers， while valuable scientific essays or positive and solemn topics are not favored so much. Thus， it might happen that when someone submits an excellent academic essay to an influential media outlet， the organization may choose not to publish it out of concern for low ratings.

Therefore， the number of essays published in core journals should remain the most important criterion of reference for intellectuals promotion， while the communication effect of online essays can be seen as a supplementary reference. We applaud Zhejiang Universitys courage and pioneering spirit. We also hope to see the university work out detailed evaluation rules as soon as possible.