Calls for change welcomed

While attending a consultative meeting on scientific and technological research evaluation, Zheng Lansun, a scientist and political adviser, called for raising awareness of the abuse of the Science Citation Index and streamlining various "talent projects".

The abuse of the SCI system has led researchers to only focus on how many papers were published, but they are unable to conduct high-quality and time-consuming research," said Zheng, an academician in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a member of the Standing Committee of the 12th and the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body.

Using the index system as the sole means to evaluate researchers and to give them a title in various talent projects will harm the purity of the research environment, he said.