The Impact of SSCI & SCI on Taiwan’s Academy: Petition for A Fair Play Chuing Prudence CHOU 周祝瑛 Professor, Department of Education National Cheng-Chi University, Taiwan Website: h%20index.htm

Apple VS. Banana

Social Contextualization The neo-liberal ideology in the era of education reform since 1994: Market-driven, deregulation, and efficiency/productivity in a quantifiable way The pressure for resources after the massification of higher education since the mid-1990s The impact the world-class universities competition since late 1990s

With the expansion of Taiwan’s higher education system since 1990s, the maintenance of quality has become a key concern. In 2005, the Ministry of Education initiated (1) Program for Promoting Academic Excellence in Universities (PPAE) (2) Aiming for the Top University and Elite Research Center Development Plan (ATU )

and also established a formal university evaluation policy regulated in the University Law which will decide public funding based on university evaluation outcome All these policies aim to improving the competitiveness and raising international visibility of Taiwan’s top universities.

University evaluation depended very much on Research performance in terms of the number of articles published in SCI, SSCI and A&HCI indexed journals, as well as citation rates and associated impact factors. Evaluation has thus taken on a highly quantitative dimension since 2005.

Despite the efforts of all concerned to encourage academic excellence, the above- mentioned quantitative evaluation indicators have resulted in bitterness and complaints from humanities and social sciences nation- wide whose research accomplishment were de-valued and ignored under current quantitative indicators.

This SSCI-preference also highlights “Essential Science Indicators” (ESI) as one of the four key standards to evaluate, rank, and fund the academic programs across all disciplines. The traditionally renowned dimensions, such as book publications and international recognitions, were cast aside with an even lower/zero point value.

It is found that the introduction of a new system rewarding SSCI and SCI publication as sole performance criteria has crippled the status of faculty in Humanities and Social Sciences in Taiwan. Junior faculty in social sciences and humanity encounter even more barriers in promotion and publication.

The great experiment of the SCI/SSCI Competition The rule of games Publish or perish Dilemma between research and teaching Who was caught in-between? Who benefits? Who is in great dispair

No Way Out? Quantity VS. Quality Social Sciences/Humanities VS. Natural Sciences Top ranking universities VS. General Universities Public VS. Private Researchers VS. Lecturers Flexible Salary vs. Institutional fixed salary

Since last November, more than 2000 academic and students endorsed the petition by calling government /universities for setting up alternative approaches to evaluation that are beneficial to both researchers and funding agencies and find ways to properly tap into faculty academic productive capacity according to discipline and specialty.

反對獨尊 SCI SSCI 找回大學求實精神 The petition includes the following issues: Stop using SSCI as the best practice for evaluation and funding purposes. Recognize the rich variety of academic research practices in social sciences and the humanities.

Establish institutional profiles that recognize the local visions and development of academic disciplines. Foster a culture of social responsibility and academic professionalism. Create culturally-responsive evaluation criteria for social sciences and humanities.

It is hoped that more studies can be done based on endorsers’ comments More discussions and protests can arouse more pressure and social consensus to stop the over-value of SCI/SSCI syndrome A genuine, fair and effective evaluation system will be available for humanities and social sciences in Taiwan.

The on-line petition against the over-emphasis of SCI/SSCI What? Who? When? Where? How?

Thirty-three indicators are proposed for social sciences and humanities

An overall review of the SCI/SSCI in Taiwan What will be next? Some progress but still a long battle to go