Issues in the paradox of publish or perish:

Issues in the paradox of publish or perish:

Analysis of the problems of research, publications and evaluation in Nigerian universities

By

Dr. Umar Ahmadu

Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

u.ahmadu@yahoo.com

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: Introduction The word publication, the art of making printed materials such as books, magazines, journals and several other class of printed documents, generally for sale, seem to have different connotations, depending on the social milieu that is being addressed or persons discussing it. Publications could be in the form of novels, biographies, manuals or roadside story books and pamphlets, generally found in Nigeria. They could be written by non experts and could be specialist material, all of which would be subject to different criteria of assessment of their worth by their readers. The discussion shall be limited to journals for reasons discussed in the analysis that follows and it is a personal opinion based on the happenings in the university system and of which i feel strongly that something should be done about it. In Nigeria specialists textbooks, particularly in science and technology, are not sellable or publishable by publishers as they prefer personality-based, such as political figures, heads of key institutions, etc., publications which come in the forms of biographies or stewardship themes for which they would easily recoup their investments through launching ceremonies which are normally attended by the most influencial members of the society. Also, textbooks for lower levels of the education system, for example, for primary schools, are highly favoured as they can be marketed easily due to the interest governors and chairmen of local governments normally show in buying them for distribution as politcal gestures to schools within their domains which elicit a lot of political gains. So it is a win-win scenario for
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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: both. In both cases, personality- or educational-based, there is always the tacit assumption that the authors had some political clout to influence the leadership in making the choice, as there are other competitors. Inevitably, such biographies or stewradship themes must have been tacitly approved. Any other publications other than these, the publishers would normally insist that the cost would have to be borne by the author and this is more evident in the case of academic or specialists publications. The universities printing press are supposed to help in this regard but have largely failed, because in most univeristies where available, such press are moribund or atleast are not functioning to their full capacity, whearas many others do not have a printing press at all, particularly the third generation universities. So most publications in our universities are based on journals, which in any case are specialists publications. Our discussions shall be limited to journals while textbooks would not warrant our attention. Those outside the field of science and technology, principally education, do publish limited number of textbooks nonetheless, while those in science and technology usually resort to foreign publishers like Springer, Elsevier, etc., which are cheaper, if one had published with them at an earlier time, though there are authors who, inspite of everything, still manage to make some publications. The cost of textbook publication in Nigeria can be up to N200,000.00 or more, for a 200-page book for example, aside from many other problems that have to be overcome. Moreover, even if one did eventually fund its publication, which is what is demanded of the author in any case, since

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: there is no any form of existing policy on subsidizing or sponsoring publications by the university authorities in order to encourage prospective authors. Such books are difficult to sell, except by some veiled tactics or utter brute compulsion of some sort, such as forcing it on students. This however has a moral question hanging over it in view of the economic reasons which are chiefly responsible for the poor patronage and the stand the university authorities had taken on this contentious issue for many years. It would have been a source of stable and reliable income for the authors, say from the royalties that would have accrued to them. Similarly, it would also have gone a long way in reducing the cycle of academic staff-cum authories stand-offs regarding welfare in our universities, because of the additional revenues that would have been generated, both for the authors and university authorities, had they shared the copyright as a result of their presummed financial involvement. For the ordinary roadside novelist and other content-oriented publications that dwell on various subjects in Nigeria, publications simply mean to concoct a story or filter them from unreliable and unknown sources, package them with all the misinformation contained in them, which in many cases corrupt cherished cultural and social values, and present them to a local publisher or printer for publication without prejudice to any form of critical review of the contents or assessmnet of its implications on soicety, such as children and youths who are vulnerable and normally the patronizers of such publications. One can see people hawking such publications at bustops and public places, while others display them at newstands. The is a summary of how many people view publications in our country. Even some

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: of our politicians at one time or the other during their engagement with ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) on the issue of publications, had made some uncomplimentary remarks. The import of this however, begins to be projected if one appreciates what publications entail, atleast from the point of view of our tertiary institutions and this eventually crytallizes at the university level, which is vested with the responsibility of carrying out highest level research and publications for national development. Publshing The Article Publshing Process Research results are published in journals of which there are different types reflecting the various disciplines. A journal is a periodical, like magazine, published by specialists or a professional body for its members containing information and contributions relevant to their area of activity. Journals can be local or international in nature depending on their subject and objectives. When articles are submitted to a journal, an appointed editor ensures that it subcribes to the fundamental philosophies, principles and objectives (called scope) for which the journal was established, together with its standard format for publication. These are normally published for prospectives authors to comply with before their articles can be considered for a thorough review process by a body of experts who may be up to three in number. When comments from atleast two of these reviewers are

positive the work or article may then be accepted for publication after due payment

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: of publication fees where and as may be applicable. This normally takes between two to six months for international journals, depending on the time taken by the author to effect the observations raised by the reviewers, and may also be subject to further review until reviewers are thoroughly satisfied. In the case of local journals based here in Nigeria for example, it may take a year or more in extreme cases. Efforts are being made at the international level however, by most journal publishers, to reduce the the review period and hence hasten the publication time. The impact of the work is measured by the citation index, which is the number of times the author had been cited by other workers in the field or similar in a year or over a period of time, or as may be determined by the various indexing agencies that assess the impact of scientific publications. Journal Publications The issue of publications are a cardinal principle within the universities and

therefore occupies a special place in the hearts of researchers. A high level of misunderstanding has characterized and shrouded this thorny concept during promotions and had been a recurring decimal in all ASUUFGN

(Federal Government) negotiations, hence the desire to expouse the concept. It is not clear if some writers had done so before but if they had, this should serve as a reminder in any case, particularly, as the article sheds more light on detailed activities involved in research and publications and its implications for national development. It is hoped that it would enlighten the general public, prospective postgraduate students, would-be lecturers and, expectedly, draw the attention of
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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: policy makers in the appreciation of the import of the concept. All the arguements in this discussion are without prejudice to the fact that the FGN is virtually the sole sponsor of research in the universities and the fact that there are twenty four Federal Universities. In 2011, nine new conventional Federal Universities across the six geopolitical zones were established with take off grants, and all the problems enumerated below would only increase the worries of the FGN and undermine the current allocations to these universities in the future. Though it is granted that politically these new universities create jobs and many other opprtunities for the citizenry, however, including their impact in our analysis would only make things messier. The impact of this development has thus been omitted from the present discussion. Publications can take several forms, however, whatever form they take, they must have involved research of some sort from the outset. Research could be based on some idea, procedure, design, construction, or socio-political problems that are to be studied systematically and the results made public through established scientific outlets (journals). The nature of research being discussed here is one of high quality, that is, in terms of standard procedure, good design and a clear problem identification, followed by a logical, watertight analysis and reasonable conclusion. The foregoing discussions refer to a lecturer in a Nigerian university setup.

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish:

Nigerian Universities Funding of Research in Nigerian Universities There has been a great lept in the allocations to the Federal Universities in recent years and to research in particular, it is therefore necessary to have a glimpse of the indices on expenditure in order to contextualize our discusssions approriately. Basic funding indices in research show that the FGNs fund allocation to universities has increased steadily over the years, but we are not yet there and there is room to do more. As at 2006 the FGNs funding of research in the universities reached 98% with less than 2% coming from foreign agencies such as MacArthur, etc. Whearas internationally investments in R&D is as high as 6-10% GDP, it has been consistently less than 1% in Nigeria. Moreover, research is and must be viewed as a source of creating new job opportunities and therefore a sure way to alleviate poverty given our high poverty rate and the fact that the average Nigerian lives on an average of less than $2 per day, together with a dysfunctional education sytstem which many have decried as not producing the desired result. All of which makes the case for investment in research the more imperative. In 2007 for example, the then minister of education Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili revealed that 70% of graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions are unemployed, underemployed and unemployable. Shortly after, the then CBN governor Prof. Charles Soludo made a similar remark when he revealed that more than 60% of Nigerian graduates are unemployable, i.e., they do not have skills commensurate with their university degrees.

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish:

Elements of Research In the current information and communication technology age, no researcher can do without the laptop computer for reasons of mobility and ease, among others. One also needs to have internet connection, that is, buy a modem and accompanying accessories, because normally the university internet sevices would be unreliable, of course there is the issue of recharging no end to be borne by the researcher, though some universities have acquired the fibre optic option making life more bearable to researchers. Also, there is the cost of printing (N20.00 per page or more) or rather one should buy a printer (N10,000.00+). Generally, there are no relevant journals/textbooks in most of our libraries and therefore the researcher in most cases shuns the libraries, which means that occasionally one has to travel both within and, if necessary, outside the country, depending on nature and extent of work involved in order to acquire information and other necessary materials. Alternatively, one may seek for collaborations using the internet in order to look for experts in the field of investigation or to secure facilities or both. The researcher needs a lot of time to read and understand the mass of literature

(textbooks, journals, periodicals, reports, etc.) and to understand the nature and working principles of the facilities, in the case of science/technology for example, that would be needed but which are normally not available.

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: In order to impliment these, materials are needed: chemicals, facilities, laboratories and even experts. Since most materials and facilities are not available in our laboratories the researcher has to travel amongst various laboratories, which incidentally cannot be known beforehand, over a period of time, depending on the nature and extent of work involved. In between however, there would be a lot of disappointments and failures involving breakdown of equipment, lack of some chemicals, amongst others, of which one needs to have made alternative arrangements from the outset.This is the most critical stage of the research requiring funding and is the crux of the matter in the universities and has become, over the years, the bone of contention between ASUU and the university authorities on the one hand, and FGN on the other. It is what makes academic staff agitated and rattles the administrators and the most pathetic and strategic missing link in the functioning of our universities, its Achilles heels. All corrrupt practices in the system related to the publish or perish cliche stem from this. It has lead to plagiarism at the lower and higher levels of the academic ladder and to lots of dubious practices in university-based journals, without prejudice to wether they are faculty- or department-based. Hence most of such journals are not functional due to various disputes largely bordering on finances and self-serving pursuits. Some have even blamed private publishers of such journals who are not normally reknown but obscure, of collusion (never mind, these are business people in any case, so they do not give a damn what is published) in this misdeed because of their questionable publications that, allegedly, have low academic merit and are lacking in quality in

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: many cases. Some of the allegations levelled against universitybased journals include, though not necessarily limited to, cases where researchers publish up to four articles, in the worst case, in one journal issue. An action many consider dubious, unethical and questionable. There has also been claims that such articles are not even assessed in some cases or even paid for by their authors as a result of purported intimidation of the editorial board members by senior colleagues.The editorial members are largely juniors in rank or where seniors are concerened, nepotism may occur. The senior colleagues are apparently most desirous of these publications for the purpose of promotions to higher levels in the university-based journals and are therefore wont to use their clout. More on these later. Meanwhile, the funds needed for research are supposed to come, indeed does come from the researcher. Or if it is a senior colleague that is involved, it may come from the postgraduate students who in turn may have to collect loans or whatever. Avowedly, there are supposed to be funding bodies for research in an ideal working university system because it is, some might say, wicked, to ask university teachers to use their money to prosecute research as we have funding bodies, but that unfortunately, is the case. There is the university board of research, the Tetfund and the STEP-B Project, to name but a few, as the principal funding agencies by the FGN. Truth is, can they fund all research? Certainly not. But with transparancy and efficiency the situation can improve. Research(UBR UBR). The University Board of Research(UBR). more

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: The UBR is now funded through the Tetfund in most universities and hundreds of millions are allocated annually to it. Though it used to be funded from the megre allocations to the universities in most cases. However there are some problems: does the Tetfund publish yearly how much allocation goes to each university and make it accessible so that researchers and the general publice? May be , rarely. Do the universities similarly publish what has been allocated to research in any year in question ? Certainly no. That is to say one can only speculate as such documents are rarely released on the issue. Do we know who and who have won the awards of research grants and the amount ? These are not published either. Many more questions are begging for answers in our universities regarding research grants. Even after formally completing the due process in applying for research those who failed to secure may sometimes not be communicated to, justifying the reasons. In all cases, including those who succeeded, it may take years to materialize. How can research be conducted this way? The summary of this highly charged, consequenceridden action is that the process is not transparent and highly flawed. The universities research focus is not clearly articulated or stated to guide applicants. We are told that the Tetfund requires that unspent funds be returned, which is reasonable as it is within the context of international best practices, however, is it possible to return money when funds are not enough to go round for researchers and researchers have to take a loan to prosecute their research? Some have described this as sheer wickedness. Anyone failing to secure the funds after due application should have the right to an explanation, that is the university must

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: show that either it is not in its primary research area, which of course must have been stated earlier, or that it is simply poorly designed research which ought to have been assessed transparently within the context of other competing applications and verifiable. Rather than hammer on the formatting of the applications, etc. One can continue to flog this issue because it is vexed and demoralizing in nature in view of the corruption it breeds in the system which had lead to a pervasive academic decadence in our universities. It should be stressed though that this seemingly hopeless scenario must but be taken with a pinch of the salt as not all universities fail in the process of efficient and transparent disbursement of research funds because of non-uniform or rather diffuse policies of the various universities in the country. However, the yearnings and cries are real and pervasive. For example, some universities ensure that all those on postgraduate programmes benefit from the ETF fund. Ironically, others refuse to give postgraduate students studying in Nigeria nothing but rather award fellowships amounting to millions of Naira to those studying abroad, for whatever reason. Does this policy make any sense? I belive that these should be revisited in the interest of the country. The Tetfund has also taken upon itself to fund research directly and as such deserve our attention, albeit briefly. Born after the ASUU-FGN agreements of 2001 and 2005, it was set up in 1993 to collect 2% of pretax levies from all companies in Nigeria. The portion that goes to the universities is 50% with a substantial chunk supposedly going to research. The Tetfund received a great boost in funding and

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: indeed research when in 2010 the guidelines for accessing the N3 billion Naira fund domiciled with it was released.These are the origins of the current funds meant for research and training of lecturers. In addition, another N33 billion Naira was released to 13 tertiary institutions (unnamed) also injected through the Tetfund, according to the mninister of education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai, speaking in Osogbo at the 7th convocation ceremony of the Federal Polytechnic Ede. There is therefore substantial investment in research and there must be value for it. Tetfund has emphasized that they only fund collaborative research which makes both economic and empirical sense. The reality is that it is very difficult to meet someone who had benefitted from the award, that is within our immediate environment or as can be gathered from sister institutions from our network of colleagues. It seems that the visible ones are generally professors, that is high profile personalities. Indeed what is gathered from our colleaques in sister institutions and our postgraduate students, who are mainly workers that come from various institutions accross the country, points to the same thing. It must however be acknowledged that there are indeed beneficiaries but their numbers are certainly few as to make real changes and impact on the status quo, the reasons are not far-fetched: the demand for collaborative research is the snag. Anyone who knows the attitude of researchers in Nigerian universities would understand the futility and near impossibility of entering into or inculcating the spirit of team work in researchers. In essence, this is what is required by the Tetfund and indeed by the UBRs, of researches who had been accustomed to working in isolation for many years principally due to lack of

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: facilities and perhaps personal idiosyncrasies. The fact is, the culture is just not there but can be inculcated and will evolve with time if funding can be sustained. Some of the problems that have been identified as militating against collaborative research include distrust, envy, competition, corrupt tendencies, sheer laziness and general apathy, attributted to the FGNs handling of education matters with, some would say unappologetically, levity over the years. Moreover, because of the requirement that a senior member must be the lead investigator, it has been argued that ultimately it is the junior members that would most likely be saddled with the actual wholesale execution of the research while the senior ones manage the funds, allegedly to their advantage and in contentious circumstances. This inevitably and invariably, normally leads to disputes, claims and counterclaims about authorship of the work and to whom should credit be due. Experience shows that it hardly works amicably without pointing fingers at eachother, except in the case involving those who had already warmed up to themselves before this or student-supervisor case. Another reason might be that people do not apply probably due to skepticism and the fact that the funds may not go round, in addition to the strict conditions for accessing the funds and realizing it. Overall, it is believed, apparently, that the Tetfund is more likely to provide a level playing field in the area of disbursement of research funds than would our respective domains currently and therefore many would like to see increased Tetfund funding in the future and a more realistic approach to the issue of collaboration. The STEP B Project

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: The STEP-B project (Science and Technology Education Post Basic project) is a counterpart-funded programme between the World Bank and the FGN, through the Federal Ministry of Education, FME. In 2010, the minister of education Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai also revealed that a US$150 million will further be injected in the programme. The first mention of the STEP-B project was around 2007/2008 session and it was a grant that was meant for all branches of science studies, in particular, final year projects for undergaradute students, and final thesis report for Ph.D. students. For example, the beneficiaries among those who applied in 2008 were only awarded about three years later when many had graduated. This certainly is not a good recipe for prospective researchers who see the body as the final nail in the coffin in the research funding imbroglio. Since then however, the fund has not been accessible to researchers and has instead evolved into a materials and facility purchasing programme to upgrade infrastructure for which the first batch of such a programme is yet to be operational or realized in many cases. PTDF Intervention in Universities The PTDF (Petroleum Training Development Fund) is yet another effort by the FGN targetted principally at the universities and is mainly concerned with staff training. It offers full postgraduate training scholarships for engineering and petroleum related courses based on select criteria and geographical spread. It also endows chairs in select universities by contributing in the area of laboratories and other infrastructure, with bias in chemical engineering principally, together with some related areas. However, it does not support or provide funding for research
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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: and ironically those PTDF scholars, as they are called, who were trained overseas (tens of millions of Naira on each) within international standards come back to the universities and find empty laboratories together with all the problems of research we earlier alluded to. They find that they cannot apply their acquired skills and knowledge in a way that would benefit the system. Is this a good thing, does it make sense? Agenc Other Funding Agencies Among the other agencies that fund research, the most important is the McArthur Foundation which has made great impact in the area of staff training and science equipment for research. Though they are limited to only six geographical zones for their collaborative initiatives (universities of Ibadan, Portharcourt, Ahmadu Bello and Bayero University Kano (BUK), among others). BUK is a shining example of how this collaboration can be successful if properly managed, because as at 2006 it has benefitted a total of US$5.5 million which lead to its being the best in the NUCs (Nigerian Universities Commision) accreditation exercise where more than 90% of its courses were fully accredited. The FGN is also expected to have counterpart-funded the programme to the tune of $235 million as at then. Some universities have also benefitted from various grants for research secured through the efforts of various outstanding lecturers and are also funded by foreign bodies. This however depends on the calibre of the researchers which in turn depends on their training, experience and international standing. Many such

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: individuals have studied abroad or might have carried out research overseas and have thus established a linkage. The university of Ibadan without doubt is a leader in this area. In general most first generation universities lead due to the opportunity they had in virtually all respects of university education from the beggining. On completion of these tortuous paths toward publication the researcher is expected to submit a written report in a special format. The format in which the article, i.e., the research that was undertaken is written depends on the field in which the research had been conducted. There are several formats both local and international in which the reports could be written and most importantly, the publication fees that would be paid. There are what are known as respected or high impact journals in any field of specicalization. The impact factor is a measure of the number of times the journal has been cited in a year, and it varies every year. In other to publish in such journals the delineation of the theoretical framework, method and novelty are paramount. It is very difficult for researchers in developing countries like Nigeria to make inroads into such journals on the experimental research ladder for example. Therefore most researchers are left with no option but to publish in local journals, although there are also some robust arguements in choosing to publish locally.The problem with international journals, as argued by experts however, is that given the quality of the work and its relevance, they do not generally address local problems. The choice of most researchers willy nilly, is to publish in local journals with all the disdain and skepticism with which such

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: publications are viewed and hence the reason for the brouhaha in promotions exercise.The page-charges for typical high impact journals may be as high as 100500 USD or more, depending on the journals impact factor. Any author that publishes in such journals is respected amongst his peers locally and within the international comity of scientists or experts in that field. A word of caution must be sounded here with respect to the so-called international journals as they need further qualification. If one publishes in a journal in Ghana, Morocco or even the US, is it sufficient criteria for repute? The answer is unequivocally no. This is because it is immaterial of the country of origin rather the respect with which it is held within the scientific community based on its anteccedents like number of Nobel Laureates who had published in it or the publications that had led to a revolutionizing of understanding or developement of new technologies or products or both. Otherwise, there are out there many crookish international journals in both developed and developing countries that are not interested in the quality of work published but on the outrageous fees they charge unsuspecting researchers who are desperately looking for outlets to vent out their international publications, all of which, incidentally, are generally aimed at promotions.There must therefore be some criteria with which researchers and university authorities should use to gauge the quality of research independent of the outlet, i.e. journal. One sure criteria to use is the known publishers who had over the years acquired formidable reputation due to the quality of reputable works they had published in the past and the reputation of the researchers publishing in them. Some of these publishers

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: include Springer, John Willey and sons and Elsevier, among others, who publish across all disciplines. Afterall, publications are bussiness ventures at the end of the day and publishers are certainly looking for works that have impact on the scientific and busisness community and that elicit orders for their publications. Unknown publishers may be suspect though not necessarily dubious because of the trade name and reputation the established ones had acquired over the years. However, the rigorousness of their review process and authorship as gauged by the quality of works published by them can break the jinx, otherwise the suspicion will linger on and is the bane of disputes in academic promotions. As far as journal publications go, the impact factor is the measure of the integrity of the journal in the scientific community. So any institution that assesses promotions without identifying such journals and giving due credit to those who publish in them despite all odds, rather promotes based on international publications only, would be deemed to have a flawed evaluation criteria and not to have adequately recognized the achievement of the researcher. On the otherhand, one may argue that by the very nature of our poorly equipped laboratories and multitudes of educationally dysfunctional indices like poor funding of research, can we logically and justifiably ever be qualified for promotions if they were based on impact factor as may be proposed in promotions? There are many journals of repute that have no page-charges, they are free and infact they are fast becoming the order of the day. The snag however, like the case of the high impact journals, is that they insist on high quality work and novelty which are not easily accessible to us within the context of some of the problems we

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: earlier identified. It is therefore not easy to publish in them either, despite the fact that they are free. One can however publish in both, page-charged and otherwise, if collaborations with some of the developed countries in materials and facilities are cemented in order to upgrade the quality of the work. Do we have robust and sustainable collaborative programmes to facillitate research? Unfortunately no.

Nevertheless, where the work is in the theoretical field, no materials or facilities required but may not be expedient for solving Nigerias problems under the circumstances, one may, inspite of everything, succeed in publishing in these journals. Indeed many have succeeded. However, critics have asked the question wether mere publishing international journals benefit the country at all. Is the problem being addressed relevant to the Nigerian reality and aspirations, since research is about solving problems anyway, apart from the personal respect that goes to the researcher and his/her institution and the status elevation that might ensue for the one involved? Does the FGN ever consults such publications to enable it make decisions on any matter or do such publications ever mean anything in practical terms to the Nigerian context? The answer is unfortunately in the negative. For example, researchers at NAPRI(National Pharmaceutical Research Institute) and at a Biotechnology outfit (now defunct) located at SHETSCO (Sheda Science and Technology Complex), Abuja have both patented works (vaccine and aviation fuel, respectively) which are relevant to both local and international community, but have the efforts of these individuals been recognized or followed up or are the programmes and researchers still ticking? International journals have

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: philosophies, rigourous assessment criteria, objectives and, perhaps, some would say an undertone of politics (inspite of the vaunted claims to the contrary) which are basically rooted in the reality of the peculiar problems they face as a nation in their industries or socio-cultural settings and reflects their national aspirations. These are widely at variance with the needs of developing countries like ours. Moreover, they are couched within their cultural and scientific milieu which are highly advanced comparatively, though the socio-cultural component is argueable.

Therefore even a collaborative work may in the long run have to be tailored to suit their needs as a requirement for engagement since only works that suit their agenda and national objectives and aspirations would be published, although there might be some international tinge to it . Granted that on a grandscale such work may impact on the international community eventually, it still has no local base or relevance so there will be no support for the continuity of the research. The

problem is should we be concerned with research on the international scale (e.g. Nanotechnology, among others) damning our research implimentation failure or should we concentrate on local priorities, we have not yet subdued microtechnology mark you. The answer would be that our policy formulators must thoroughly examine our national aspirations, strenghts and weaknessses and problems through the spectrum of our national obejectives and apportion approriate ratios of funding for national and international research. It makes sense that as a developing nation our research should be largely tilted towards solving national problems and because we cannot afford to excise ourselves from the goings-on at the

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: frontiers of science and technology, appropriate funding allocations should be apportioned to international research and collaborations too. What about publications in our local journals, do we have reputable publishing houses? We have international publishing houses who are incorporated in Nigeria, such as Macmillan, Heinmann and others. But do they dabble into the field of journal publishing in Nigeria? I have not seen one yet and do not know why they are not engaged in it, beacuse they are in a better position to do so. What about free journals? There is at least a free journal published by the National Space Research Centre (university of Nigeria, Nsukka) and has no page charges. Other local journals have page-charges ranging from N10,000-N15,000.00 for 6-10 pages, which is relatively very modest compared to the USD denomination in which one has to pay for their international counterparts. Many believe this is justified since research is not funded and the laboratories are poorly equipped, it would therefore be unfair, a tall order to demand for quality work or to talk about high impact journals. How do we reconcile this with the fact that we belong to the international scientific community? Is there a substandard science? All the above efforts and the associated expenditures are generally geared toward promotions and higher qualifications. Almost all researchers have as their ultimate goal for research, promotions. So what happens despite everything after getting to the top-Professor ? Research comes to an end for most, understandably and is burried forever. It is an academic exercise to argue wether or not it is the ideal thing to do as it depends on the prospects of the person concerned within the
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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: academic setup or elsewhere. However, logical arguements have shown that it is the ideal thing to do based on the reality and expedience of the situation in the country, having personally spent ones money over the years on an issue that does not seem to abate and that should not in the first place have been ones reponsibility to take on. The Promotion Battle However, one should not yet hasten to think that it is uhuru for the researcher-a license for promotion even for the one who might have been publishing in high impact journals. Promotions are events considered with great passion and are indeed a vexed issue in the university system, based on reasons previously articulated. It is always ladden with jealousy, prejudice, retribution, competition and conspiracy to deny qualified (sometimes to checkmate crooks) individuals

based on conflict with entrenched interests and authorities as a result of trifle excuses or contrived ones, many would argue. That is to say academic promotions are pregnant with political baggage and calculations both strategic, statutory and personal. Issues like multiple publications in a single issue of a journal, reputation of publishers of the journal, single and multiple authorships (for example, what is the maximum number of authors acceptable in a single paper), the ratio of international to local publications at the higher level and the issue of plagiarism, all often come to the fore at this times, among others. All the while no one actually borders to read the published article in question to discern its merits or otherwise, irrespective of the journal, but all eyes are on the journal itself or other niceties. Nor
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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: is it ever subjected to a re-review, even as it is controversial. In the final analysis it would be a winnable debate to argue that promotion excercises are more about depromoting people, given its many negative connotations and convoluted interests. Many have asked themselves wether it makes sense to go through all these troubles in getting publications but at the end of the day be denied due to some contrived excuses, even though some with less glittering or poor quality publications and dubious publishers may have secured the promotions if they are in the good books. Some have even argued that some of those who enforce these laws, given a level playing field, would not have qualified. However, they have employed all sorts of dubious means to attain their current positions and have the audacity to stand on high moral grounds to deny others who may be better qualified than them in practice. Hence, it has been argued that at whatever level of seniority one may be there should be a proviso for interested parties to display their publications for everyone to see and assess, so that it can engender mutual respect and douse suspicions. Also, some are of the opinion that papers presented for promotions must have been presented or defended at an earlier seminar at the

university/faculty/department level, as may be applicable. This is supposed to entrench a semblance of originality, quality and dignity and to dispel all insunuations of plagiarism which, unfortunately, is now becoming pervasive at all levels of the academic ladder. It has been attributted to the decadence and poor funding of research which has made many researchers unable to cope with the harsh climate and therefore resort to such cheap interlectual theft.

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Plagiarism on the Rise Fears have been expressed that as university operators continue to deny and run down the universities in respect of funding, many, as yet hard working and honest researchers will eventually fall prey to this unwholesome culture that is fast

gaining ground and seem to be paying those involved handsomely for now, while the hardworking ones continue to suffer neglect and are denied promotion. In view of recent happenings, it is necessary to note here that a new mechanism for evaluation of publications or thesis reports at all levels (undergraduate and postgraduate) need to be evolved in view of the internet resources available where people download or translate and edit others works and eventually shamelessly claim them to be theirs. Even with the plagiarism software, unless we agree and answer questions such as what level of plagiarism should be acceptable and for what calibre of persons and the level of involevement, we will continue to witness a rise in the number of those involved. This is because it is the greatest sin of the academics and there has been such cases involving top persons in developed countries too. Conclusion It is difficult to justify the cliche of publish or perish within the Nigerian scenario unless concomitant efforts are put in place to effect a positive change in our laboratories and research funding is enormously improved. It is given that every
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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: researcher is ready to work if only his working environment can be enhanced to ease his work. Those who failed to deliver under these circumstances should be the ones to perish. Moreover, there is need to have a policy document on promotions among others which cannot be at the whims and caprices of any administrator to tinker with, with impunity. In such cases there must have been a review with the notice properly served before a new policy can be enunciated and enforced which shall subsequently take effect within a specified period of time so that prospective applicants can fullfil the conditions as may be required. The lifetime of such a document should not be less than 3-5 years, depending on the exigencies of the situation and times, to enable persons acquire the necessary credentials or as may be mutually agreed upon by the interested parties. Inspite of the fact that the article set out to address the issue of publish or perish, it is regettable to say that the feeling is that the true story can only be told by the one who has to undertake research and those in particular who have the burden to do it for life-the Lecturers. What is really happening in the system cannot be told fully on these pages and an outsider can only emphatize with the situation. One can estimate the amount involved in this brief rundown of the basic elements of research. This is the lifewire of the academics, it is what keeps academics at work at all times, it is what accords them honour or dishonour otherwise they would be involved in mundane affairs which often might be inimical to the system-an idle mind they say is a devils workshop.The urgent need to evolove multiple programmes which may be, but not necessarily, modelled in the image of the

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Issues in the paradox of publish or perish: Tetfund that will enhance the funding of research and provide laboratory facilities and materials cannot be over emphasized. The multinationals in particular and other public-owned companies must be made or encouraged to dialoque in order to cede a substantial amount of their research which are currently carried out overseas but which, in some cases, can be carried out effectively in Nigeria, to our universities. This should be seen as part of their coporate responsibilities to

national development and in order to broker and bolster a lasting legacy of universityindustry symbiosis that will take Nigeria to a higher level as is obtained in many developed countries.

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