| dc.description.abstract | In December 2011, the journal Science published the information that two Saudi-
Arabian universities were massively recruiting highly-cited research stars from
Cambridge, Harvard & Co. who had made it to the ISI list of most frequently cited
researchers. For about $ 70,000 per year they were offered an affiliation to these
universities in exchange for the obligation to be present once a year for a short
period and to indicate in all their publications their affiliation to the Saudi University.
The result was that within two and three years both institutions made it
from not listed at all into the group of the top 200 to 300 in the Shanghai JiaoTong
Academic Ranking ofWorld Universities (ARWU Ranking).Thus, universities are
buying the reputation of researchers in order to increase their own reputation. Not
all researchers who were contacted could be bought. However, in March 2012, the
largest Australian daily The Australian published a list of 60 frequently cited
researchers who had been appointed as ‘distinguished scientists’ at one of the two
Saudi-Arabian universities, among them 13 Germans. Altogether, it comprises a
number of researchers from top universities in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and
Australia. All are men, some of whom are already retired. | |
