Source-linked AI summary
Publish or impoverish: An investigation of the monetary reward system of science in China (1999-2016)
Wei Quan, Bikun Chen, Fei Shu
TL;DR
Existing research did not compare cash reward policies across Chinese universities or establish their national landscape. This study analyzes 168 university policies from 100 Chinese universities and finds rewards of 30–165,000 USD per WoS-indexed paper, with average rewards rising over the past decade.
Problem
Existing research lacked comparisons of cash reward policies across Chinese universities and a systematic landscape of publication rewards in China.
Method
The study analyzes 168 university reward policies, comparing calculated rewards for papers in journals spanning different impact factors and JCR quartiles.
Results
30 to 165,000 USD is offered per WoS-indexed paper, while average rewards increased over the past decade and JCR-quartile policies became dominant from 2013 onward.
Takeaways & Limitations
Chinese universities differentiate publication rewards by journal impact factor and JCR quartile, with Nature and Science receiving the largest cash awards.
Takeaways & Limitations
The study uses convenience sampling, excludes social sciences and humanities, and does not test whether reward policies correlate with publication numbers.
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to present the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China and reveal its trend since the late 1990s. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on the analysis of 168 university documents regarding the cash-per-publication reward policy at 100 Chinese universities. Findings: Chinese universities offer cash rewards from 30 to 165,000 USD for papers published in journals indexed by Web of Science (WoS), and the average reward amount has been increasing for the past 10 years. Originality/value: The cash-per-publication reward policy in China has never been systematically studied and investigated before except for in some case studies. This is the first paper that reveals the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China.
Literature Review
The study addresses limited knowledge about China’s confidential cash-per-publication policies by analyzing 168 university documents and mapping their eligibility rules, reward amounts, and variation. It finds substantial rewards tied primarily to WoS and journal metrics, alongside concerns about publication-driven misconduct and indicator misuse.
- Risks and limitations: Cash incentives may prioritize rapid publications, encourage plagiarism or fabricated research, and promote excessive reliance on JIF as a measure of individual paper quality.The study describes publication productivity benefits but also identifies extrinsic motivation and bibliometric-indicator misuse.
- Research gap: Chinese universities’ internal and sometimes confidential policies left the reward range, journal-quality dependence, and inter-university variation insufficiently understood.The policy had been applied for 20 years, but these three dimensions remained unclear.
- Method: The study compared different policies by calculating cash rewards for papers published in selected example journals.Policies differed in eligibility criteria, amounts, calculation formulas, and payment methods.
- Findings: 168 policies showed rewards of 30 to 165,000 USD for a single WoS-indexed paper, with average reward amounts increasing during the past 10 years.The results characterize policy eligibility, reward amounts, diversity, and trends.
- Authorship: 118 of 168 policies awarded cash only to the first author, while 22 of those also required the recipient to be the corresponding author.The individual cash reward per WoS paper ranged from 30 USD to 165,000 USD.