华东师范大学学报(教育科学版) ›› 2021, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (10): 77-102.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2021.10.007

• 教育评价 • 上一篇    下一篇

举贤不避亲:内部人特征降低了学术论文的质量和影响力吗?——以中国大陆教育学术期刊发表的923901篇论文为例

李一杉1, 刘金松2   

  1. 1. 华东师范大学教育学部教育学系/国家教育宏观政策研究院,上海 200062
    2. 上海师范大学国际与比较教育研究院,上海 200234
  • 出版日期:2021-10-20 发布日期:2021-09-27
  • 基金资助:
    2020年教育部人文社科基金青年基金项目“我国普通高中学生综合素质评价改革研究”(20YJC880054)

Relatives are not Avoided When Talents are Demanded: Does Insider Characteristics Reduce the Quality and Influence of Academic Papers? Examples from Mainland China

Yishan Li1, Jinsong Liu2   

  1. 1. Department of Education & National Institutes of Educational Policy Research in Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
    2. College of Eudcation, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  • Online:2021-10-20 Published:2021-09-27

摘要:

伴随着学术发表竞争程度加剧,关于学术期刊在论文发表中偏爱内部人稿件的讨论逐渐增加,但是尚无实证研究探讨内部人稿件对教育研究学术论文的质量和影响力发挥了怎样的作用。利用2001年至2019年中国大陆教育类学术研究期刊发表的923901篇论文的数据和80位访谈对象提供的文本证据,基于“成本-收益”机制框架、理性决策视角和交易成本概念三者结合的理论逻辑推导分析,就内部人特征对学术论文质量和影响力的效应提出了一项假说与四项研究假设并通过定量分析与质性分析结合的混合研究模式进行验证。研究发现:(1)内部人稿件在大部分“时段*目录*下载/引用”板块中的影响力和质量均优于外部人稿件。(2)随时间由远及近,内部人效应在不同板块有不同的变动趋势,在CSSCI来源由负转正,在CSSCI扩展与北大核心由正转负,在普通期刊呈现区间波动。(3)内部人特征对质量产生的总效用中包含了一部分影响力的中介/间接效应,该中介/间接效应随板块不同而变动,并且存在遮掩效应,应重视影响力的中介/间接效应对价值发现的作用。(4)位于中低档区间的内部人特征较位于中高档区间的内部人特征呈现更多的负效应,中高档区间的内部人特征则较中低档区间的内部人特征呈现更多的正效应。(5)外部人特征中的伪内部人特征相对内部人特征在质量和影响力维度的效应呈现下降趋势,但优于真外部人特征,并不能简单以“垄断”作负面理解。(6)学术期刊、审稿人和论文作者对内部人稿件的看法及其相应行动随着个体内在特征和所处外部环境的不同而存在明显差异。综合前述分析,本研究认为不能简单地认定含有内部人特征的内部人稿件显著降低了学术论文的质量和影响力,需要具体情况具体分析。同时内部人特征在帮助学术期刊降低与论文作者之间的交易成本时,以内部人稿件占比在中低档增加和中高档减少作为代价,并且这种代价因板块不同而存在差异。基于上述研究结果,本研究站在程序公平和实质公平的角度对学术期刊提出了强化内部流程、提升决策绩效和优化质量与影响力的建议,对论文作者提出了增强研究水平和建立专业声誉的建议。

关键词: 学术评议, 业绩表现, 成本-收益, KHB中介效应分析, 分位数回归, 质性研究

Abstract:

Along with the increased level of competition for academic publication, there is a growing debate about the preference for insider manuscripts in academic journals, however, there has been no empirical research to discuss the effect of insider manuscripts on the quality and influence of academic papers in educational research. This study is based on data of 923, 901 papers published in educational academic research journals in mainland China from 2001 to 2019 and textual evidence from 80 interviewees, based on the framework of “cost-benefit” mechanism, rational decision-making perspective and the concept of transaction cost, a research hypothesis and two research assumptions on the effect of insider characteristic on the quality and influence of academic papers are proposed and verified by the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis of mixed research pattern. The study found that (1) the influence and quality of insider manuscripts are better than that of outsiders in most “Period * Catalog * Download/Cite” sections. (2) From far to near, the insider effect has a different trend in different plates, the effect in CSSCI changed from negative to positive, in CSSCI-E and PKU-CCJ changed from positive to negative, fluctuates in general journals. (3) There is a mediating/indirect effect of the influence of insider characteristic on the total utility of quality, the mediating/indirect effect varies by section, and there is a masking effect, attention should be paid to the mediating/indirect effect of influence on value discovery. (4) The insider characteristic in the middle and low range has more negative effect than that of the middle and high range, the insider characteristic in the middle and high range shows more positive effect than that in the middle and low range. (5) In terms of quality and influence, the fake insider characteristic of outsider characteristic show a downward trend compared with that of insider characteristic, but better than real outsider characteristic, it is not simply a negative definition of monopoly. (6) The opinions of academic journals, reviewers and paper authors on insider manuscripts and their corresponding actions are obviously different with the individual's internal characteristic and external environment. Synthesizing the above analysis, this study argues that it is not possible to simply identify that insider manuscripts with insider characteristic significantly reduce the quality and influence of academic papers, which needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, when the characteristic of insider help academic journals to reduce transaction costs with paper authors, the contribution proportion of insider increases in the middle and low sections and decreases in the middle and high sections as the cost, and such cost varies with different sections. Based on the above research results, this study puts forward suggestions on strengthening internal processes, improving decision-making performance and improving quality and influence from the perspective of procedural and substantive fairness for academic journals, and puts forward suggestions on enhancing research level and building professional reputation for paper authors.

Key words: academic evaluation, achievement performance, cost-benefit, KHB mediating effect analysis, quantile regression, qualitative research