A.G. Wheeler’s recent article titled “The Pressure To Publish Promotes Disreputable Science” (The Scientist, July 10, 1989, page 11) illustrates the many ills of the “publish or perish” motto of today’s scientific world in graphic detail. Fabrications, falsifications, and padding are all fair game in this endless mad race.
Also appearing in print and religiously stacked in libraries (without perhaps the grueling peer reviewing that accompanies material published in journals) as “authenicated material are satellite symposia, conference supplements, international panel discussions, update issues, proceedings, international congress series, and so forth. Can there ever be an end to this until quality reigns over sheer quantity?
A. JAGANNADHA RAO
School of Medicine
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan
