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From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.research
Subject: Re: How many people read an average research paper?
Message-ID: <2498@phri.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Nov-86 11:54:11 EST
Article-I.D.: phri.2498
Posted: Thu Nov 13 11:54:11 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Nov-86 02:03:24 EST
References: <2483@phri.UUCP> <236@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> <937@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
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Xref: mnetor sci.math:192 sci.research:27

In article <937@ssc-vax.UUCP> dickey@ssc-vax.UUCP (Frederick J Dickey) writes:
> I read an interesting article (in Science, I think) a few years ago that
> is somwhat relevant to this discussion. [...] It dealt with the subject
> of LPU's. LPU = Least Publishable Unit.

	Quoting from a recent issue of a computer science journal (the
names have been changed to protect the innocent and to protect me from
lawsuits):

	J.P. Foobar received the Ph.D. degree in computer science
	from Random University in 1975.  [...] Dr. Foobar has
	published over 100 papers.

	How does that strike you?  My initial impression was "Hmm, over 100
papers in 11 years?  That's like 1 every 6 weeks!  Something's fishy here".
Maybe I'm wrong (I havn't read most of Dr. Foobar's papers), but I just
can't believe *anybody* can do something worth publishing every 6 weeks.

	A common (and, in my opinion, disreputable) practice in biology is
to get your name on a paper by providing some technical service, trumped up
as a collaborative effort.  "Sure, I'll give your sample to my technician
and tell him to run it through my Amino Acid Sequenator if you make me a
co-author on your paper".
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

"you can't spell deoxyribonucleic without unix!"