Monday 2 February 2009

Publish or perish?

It turns out that - not really. At least at Lublin Technical University. In December, the Dean of the University has run a survey about worls published in the last three years by the researchers. And quite a few have published -- nothing!

Yes, I can imagine someone working in recluse on some grand work (Fermat's Theorem, for example), not publishing anything for 20 years. But even the famous story of Andrew Wiles shows that he had recveived recognition for work before the proof of FLT. In most cases, even if soemone is writing a huge monograph on some subject (which can take more than three years), it is possible to publish small fragments, if only to check the opinions of others or the interest in the work...

But in Poland one can be a scientist without doing science.