Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • WORLD VIEW

Payouts push professors towards predatory journals

If South Africa truly wants to encourage good research, it must stop paying academics by the paper, says David William Hedding.
By
  1. David William Hedding

    1. David William Hedding is a geographer at the University of South Africa in Johannesburg.

When my university announced the publications that qualified for South Africa’s research-output bonuses for 2018, a colleague congratulated me for the payout I would receive, not for the quality of the science I had produced. This encounter made me realize, yet again, that something is very wrong with the research system in my country.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 565, 267 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00120-1

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Assistant Attending, L1

    The Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Cancer Center (MSKCC) is seeking a qualified Radiation Oncologist candidate (board-eligible ...

    Monmouth County, New Jersey

    Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  • Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School

    Join Tsinghua SIGS as a faculty member and contribute to academic excellence and global impact.

    Tsinghua SIGS is located in Shenzhen, a vibrant innovation hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

    Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School

  • Postdoctoral Researcher – Schmidt AI in Science Fellow

    Toronto (City), Ontario (CA)

    University of Toronto (U of T)

  • Commissioning Editor - Collections Management and Acquisition

    Title: Commissioning Editor - Collections Management and Acquisition Location: Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, China - hybrid working model Application...

    Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, China - hybrid working model

    Springer Nature Ltd

  • Postdoc and Faculty

    INSTITUTE OF PRECISION MEDICINE, is recruiting postdoctoral research associate, assistant professor, associate professor and full professor

    Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN)

    ZHEJIANG CHINESE MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Morty Proxy This is a proxified and sanitized view of the page, visit original site.