Academic Overload

While there have been one or two questions about academic ethics in China recently, there is no question that there are a lot of clever academics – and that they are busy.

In a meeting the other day I spoke to someone who had been tasked with selecting some academic papers for a big international technology conference in China. He was astounded to find that over 6,000 papers were submitted (in contrast, about 100 might be expected at a European event), and that most were of very high quality, requiring very specific expertise on behalf of reviewers.