Quantity isn't quality in research work

Since corruption and plagiarism plague the academia, an Education Department claim that China ranks fifth in the world in terms of research capacity according to the number of papers published has created a controversy. The prevalent over-quantification in the evaluation process threatens to degenerate academic circles further, says an article in Yanzhao Metropolis Daily. Excerpt:

Since 2004, China has ranked fifth in the world in terms of research capacity, preceded by the United States, Britian, Germany and Japan, if we take the number of published scientific papers into account.

But the number of published papers is only one of the factors that show a country's research capacity and cannot replace the comprehensive evaluation index. Also, the thought process that goes into research in science subjects is a highly spiritualized activity, which generates many forms of accomplishments.