Petition to reform the way research output from academics is evaluated in Flanders

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/actie-hervorming-hoger-onderwijs/

*cough* May I interrupt your browsing with some petition-waving? Like most everywhere else, researchers and universities here in Flanders (Belgium) are rewarded with jobs and money based on how many publications they manage to squeeze out. Quality of those publications, teaching efforts by academics, or service to society are barely taken into account, if at all. Evaluating researchers' work in a more nuanced way would lead to universities spending taxpayers' money on more useful work, and help alleviate the intense pressure to publish that bedevils young academics in particular.

This is an open letter from various Flemish academics demanding that universities and the government (which allocates most of the money) sit down together and establish such a better system. It's in Dutch, but here is a gtranslated version that's mostly understandable.

The petition has 2700 signatures right now from all over the Flemish academic community, which is a lot given how small that community is. This issue is getting a lot of attention in Flemish media right at this moment. At the risk of being an overly starry-eyed young grad student, I can't help but hope that this is a moment when we can make some actual change happen. 

If you're concerned about the publish-or-perish mess that academics in pretty much every country are stuck in, please take a moment to support us!* Thank you <3

 

*To be clear, I'm not affiliated with the people who wrote the petition.