Incentivising international publications: institutional policymaking in Chinese higher education

Abstract

This study examines Chinese universities' incentive schemes for international publication in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). It analysed 172 incentive documents collected at 116 research-intensive universities in China, including monetary bonus schemes and career-related incentives. This analysis is complemented by interviews with six senior administrators at six Chinese universities and four journal editors to explore the policy-making process and impacts of incentivisation. The study found that most universities actively promoted international publications, with variations and similarities in their incentive schemes. In general, more benefits were granted for SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) and A&HCI (Arts and Humanities Citation Index) journal publications than domestic publications. We conclude such incentivisation showcased the influence of western standards and global benchmarking in the internationalisation of Chinese HSS, and that the incentive schemes may create a 'Matthew Effect' enabling SSCI and A&HCI journals to flourish, while deepening the divide between these and other journals.

Performing under ‘the baton of administrative power’? Chinese academics’ responses to incentives for international publications

“…For publication incentives, a study on 30 countries has identified three types of governmental incentives: funding-related incentives for institutions, career-related incentives for individuals, and cash incentives for individuals (Franzoni et al 2011). In Chinese higher education, publication incentive schemes were largely formulated on the institutional level, aiming at individual academics and including monetary and/or career-related incentives (Quan et al 2017;Xu et al 2019).…”

“…Comparatively, China has a smaller global share of Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) publications (Liu et al 2015). Incentives for international publications in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) emerged two decades later, in the 2000s, but is widespread across Chinese universities (Xu et al 2019). Until 2016, 84 out of the 116 '985' and '211' universities in China, namely top research universities enrolled in national 'world-class university' building 'Project 985' and 'Project 211' programmes, have set up university-level monetary and/or career-related incentive schemes (Xu et al 2019).…”

“…Incentives for international publications in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) emerged two decades later, in the 2000s, but is widespread across Chinese universities (Xu et al 2019). Until 2016, 84 out of the 116 '985' and '211' universities in China, namely top research universities enrolled in national 'world-class university' building 'Project 985' and 'Project 211' programmes, have set up university-level monetary and/or career-related incentive schemes (Xu et al 2019). They often counted the number of SSCI and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) publications and offered them much larger financial bonuses and/or higher weight in research evaluation, tenure assessment, and career progression, as compared with most domestic publications (Xu et al 2019).…”

Mechanical properties and progressive failure characteristics of sandstone containing elliptical and square openings subjected to biaxial stress

“…For openings with different shapes, the region occupied by an object on one complex plane can be mapped to the interior or exterior of the central unit circle on another complex plane by conformal mapping [ 31 , 32 ]. Thus, we use the following mapping functions to simplify the geometry of the elliptical opening ( Eq 5 ) and square opening ( Eq 7 ).…”

The Impacts of Incentives for International Publications on Research Cultures in Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences

“…Such incentive schemes prevail among Chinese universities, particularly those in the 'Project 985' and 'Project 211' programs. An examination of 172 incentive documents collected at 116 '985' and '211' universities found that by 2016, 84 out of the 116 had set up formal university-level incentive schemes for HSS international publications (Xu et al 2019). Most schemes are monetary or career-related incentives, that recognized journals indexed by the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) as 'HSS international journals', and granted them with larger financial bonuses or higher weights in career development than most domestic publications (Xu et al 2019).…”