The ?secret? formula revealed: How to achive a voluminous publication record!!!
Trendler, Guenter
I want to bring attention to Steve Keens secret formula of how to succeed as an academic economist. It can be applied without restrictions in psychology. Although it is not the central topic of this forum it has been often discussed (including Keens criticism of mainstream economy) and it certainly is relevant for the problems (e.g. sensible aspects about the role and meaning of measurement) scientific rebels have with the academic empire.
To cut a long story short here it is!
Step 1: Cite the work of as many potential referees to your paper as possible, as this will soothe their egos and shows that you are one of them. Make sure that your paper is seen as merely an extension of the work of one of the gurus and you are not going to rock the boat, challenging the establishment.
Step 2: For the bulk of your paper, bamboozle your readers/referees with a complicated model or argument, making any assumptions you need (however unrealistic), because Milton Friedman has already covered you with his essay on the methodology of positive economics. If you have enough complexity in mathematics or argument, it is likely that the reader/referee will not bother to follow the heart of your paper in detail.
Step 3: It is vitally important that in your conclusions that you only make modest claims in supporting the status quo, such as eg the evidence or the model lends support to the efficient market hypothesis or globalization or whatever. Quite often, your conclusions do not have to follow from what you did in Step 2. Any strong conclusions, particularly when challenging the status quo, will lead a much closer scrutiny of your paper by the referee, who is taking a career risk in accepting your paper. As the additional effort is not personally rewarded, the economically rational action for the referee is to simply reject the paper.
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2011/03/06/how-to-succeed-as-an-academic-economist/
The background for the leaking the secret recipe (was it wikileaks again?) is the recent scandal about the fraud committed by the German foreign minister. At a closer look it turned out that he plagiarized large parts of his doctoral thesis, including the foreword. I would not have been surprised if he had copied and pasted even the curriculum vitae from someone else. However, this is a cautionary tale about using the miracle recipe: the ingredients must be used with some restrain in dose! ;-)
Stephen Humphry
Hi Guenter, thanks for posting. It is not difficult to work most of that out. I like the part about 3 not necessarily having to follow from 2. That frees things up to make a point one would like to make while dressing it up as a point that the reviewers and editors are willing to hear!
That’s the way it rolls. Of course, it’s one thing to work that out, another to execute it. That latter takes a certain kind of person.
Cheers, Steve
Stephen Humphry | Associate Professor
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