Las revistas internacionales han crecido en volumen una barbaridad. Tanto han crecido que lograr la revisión de sus artículos por especialistas es cada vez más difícil. El resultado, muchos revisores son “aficionados.” Bueno, perdón. Jóvenes investigadores sin el peso de los años sobre sus hombros. ¿Pasa algo? No, todo lo contrario. Bueno, ¿o sí? Se está “colando” una cantidad de “basura” increíble.
Otro que descubre América a estas alturas... eso proviene de la perversa utilización de índices que no indican nada, como el de impacto (repetidamente refutado por científicos) o el de número de publicaciones en las listas confeccionadas por fundaciones privadas...
Una vez escuché a un profesor decir: A los investigadores habría que evaluarlos por lo que han leído, no por lo que producen (es decir, aquí todo el mundo se dedica a escribir artículos en masa para engordar curriculums, cuando lo adecuado sería estar al tanto de lo que se produce en tu especialidad y publicar poco pero interesante).
#1 Estoy plenamente de acuerdo contigo. Medir a un investigador por los artículos que tiene y las citas que recibe provoca que
1 - La gente publique artículos sin mucho contenido
2 - Ayuda a los científicos que trabajan en campos "populares", pues reciben más citas independiente de la calidad de su trabajo
Sin embargo, siempre termino planteándome la misma pregunta ¿qué otro medio para evaluar a un investigador podemos usar?
#7 Sí, por supuesto eso sería genial si los "electores" fueran completamente objetivos, pero todos sabemos que conduciría a escoger a la gente a dedo, basándose en criterios arbitrarios. Es decir, ¿es posible encontrar un sistema objetivo para evaluar a un investigador?
#4 ¿qué otro medio para evaluar a un investigador?
Hay un método muy sencillo: la entrevista personal. Un experto le hace una examen oral a un investigador y en pocos minutos sabe si "sabe de lo que habla."
"Many investigators are constantly trying to come up with new and more effective means of combatting the ever growing obesity epidemic. Well, so are we. Hereby, we postulate that applying the habit of defecating just before the usual bed time will eventually result in body weight reduction and a lower mean body weight over time.
The reasons are as follows: (a) defecating before the usual bed time implies conducting all your (daily) activities with a few extra ounces of luggage and, just as dragging a rucksack all the time will cost you more energy, the additional faecal cargo will cause the body to expend more energy and thus lose weight. Conversely, pooing in the morning can be compared to sleeping with a rucksack on: despite the inconvenience, it does not cause any additional energy loss; (b) as physical activity stimulates bowel movements [1], more restrain, and thus energy expenditure, will be required to counterbalance the increased tendency to discharge during the active period of the diurnal cycle; (c) a (nearly) full colon spoils the appetite [2,3]: apart from diverting the attention from food, a filled bowel will result in a ‘full’ sensation by physiologically retarding gastrointestinal transit time. Although an empty bowel on the other hand could enhance the appetite at night, because of sleep, it will not cause more eating.
This hypothesis can simply be put to the test in a clinical trial, e.g. measuring body weight changes in a randomized (cross-over) experiment over a (prolonged) period of time for both morning and evening poo-ers. If proven effective, this could be a costless novel approach in our fight against obesity and its harmful sequelae."
"We read with surprise the correspondence piece by Drs. Aziz from the Department of Neurology in Leiden University, who proposed to defaecate at night in order to lose weight. If their hypothesis was correct then obesity would have been less frequent among people suffering from chronic constipation, because, according to the theory of Drs. Aziz, they should have higher energy expenditure as they always carry out their everyday activities “with a few extra ounces of luggage” and their appetite should be decreased owing to a nearly full colon. However, epidemiologic studies prove just the opposite, showing an association between chronic constipation and obesity.
Further epidemiologic studies in large adult non-patient populations show that 77% defaecate in the morning. This habit is not only attributed to stimulation of bowel movements by physical activity as Drs. Aziz explained, but also because the bowel movements follow specific circadian dynamics; specifically, the acrophase of the circadian rhythm of rectal reactivity is during the morning hours, while in the daytime and evening this parameter is decreased almost 7-fold. This practically means that intentionally inhibiting the bowel’s normal activity may deregulate the bowel’s biologic clock, initially causing a form of intestinal bradyarrhythmia and finally constipation, a potential risk factor for colon cancer. It is thus important to stress that people should always respond to a defaecatory urge because failure to do so causes constipation. Moreover, the restrain required to counterbalance the increased tendency to discharge during the day will obviously have a negative impact both on the quality of life and the productivity of the people who would wish to follow the advice of Drs. Aziz in order to lose weight, as their concentration will be focused on how to avoid defaecation rather than work.
Our gastroenterological suggestion for weight loss would be to adhere to simple methods such as a balanced Mediterranean-style diet (shown to be very effective for weight loss in short- and long-term follow up) and to encourage physical activity, particularly in neurological patients (e.g. in Parkinson’s disease) in whom physical inactivity may be a relevant factor to induce constipation."
#1 Es curioso porque además este mecanismo dificulta el intercambio de datos entre colegas. Se atesoran como el oro los dragones a la espera de que en algún momento les resulten útiles a la hora de escribir un nuevo artículo a pesar de que en su mayor parte han sido recolectados utilizando dinero público. De esta manera se empobrece todo todo el mundo.
Totalmente de acuerdo y especialmente sensibilizado. Yo hace unos meses aterrice en USA para investigar y mi gran sorpresa ha sido la de mierda que se publica y además de forma intencionada. Es como una cadena de montaje, donde no importa la calidad de la ciencia (¿ciencia?) sino sacar artículos a cascoporro.
La verdad es que desilusiona bastante ver en lo que se esta convirtiendo esto.
Comentarios
Como menéame pero sin el karma, digamos.
Otro que descubre América a estas alturas... eso proviene de la perversa utilización de índices que no indican nada, como el de impacto (repetidamente refutado por científicos) o el de número de publicaciones en las listas confeccionadas por fundaciones privadas...
Una vez escuché a un profesor decir: A los investigadores habría que evaluarlos por lo que han leído, no por lo que producen (es decir, aquí todo el mundo se dedica a escribir artículos en masa para engordar curriculums, cuando lo adecuado sería estar al tanto de lo que se produce en tu especialidad y publicar poco pero interesante).
Y yo con estos pelos...
#1 Estoy plenamente de acuerdo contigo. Medir a un investigador por los artículos que tiene y las citas que recibe provoca que
1 - La gente publique artículos sin mucho contenido
2 - Ayuda a los científicos que trabajan en campos "populares", pues reciben más citas independiente de la calidad de su trabajo
Sin embargo, siempre termino planteándome la misma pregunta ¿qué otro medio para evaluar a un investigador podemos usar?
#7 Sí, por supuesto eso sería genial si los "electores" fueran completamente objetivos, pero todos sabemos que conduciría a escoger a la gente a dedo, basándose en criterios arbitrarios. Es decir, ¿es posible encontrar un sistema objetivo para evaluar a un investigador?
#4 ¿qué otro medio para evaluar a un investigador?
Hay un método muy sencillo: la entrevista personal. Un experto le hace una examen oral a un investigador y en pocos minutos sabe si "sabe de lo que habla."
#2 Para los que no tengan acceso al artículo y quieran leerlo, lo copio (en inglés), es corto ya que es una carta dirigida al editor:
"Losing weight by defecating at night" http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2006.04.044
"Many investigators are constantly trying to come up with new and more effective means of combatting the ever growing obesity epidemic. Well, so are we. Hereby, we postulate that applying the habit of defecating just before the usual bed time will eventually result in body weight reduction and a lower mean body weight over time.
The reasons are as follows: (a) defecating before the usual bed time implies conducting all your (daily) activities with a few extra ounces of luggage and, just as dragging a rucksack all the time will cost you more energy, the additional faecal cargo will cause the body to expend more energy and thus lose weight. Conversely, pooing in the morning can be compared to sleeping with a rucksack on: despite the inconvenience, it does not cause any additional energy loss; (b) as physical activity stimulates bowel movements [1], more restrain, and thus energy expenditure, will be required to counterbalance the increased tendency to discharge during the active period of the diurnal cycle; (c) a (nearly) full colon spoils the appetite [2,3]: apart from diverting the attention from food, a filled bowel will result in a ‘full’ sensation by physiologically retarding gastrointestinal transit time. Although an empty bowel on the other hand could enhance the appetite at night, because of sleep, it will not cause more eating.
This hypothesis can simply be put to the test in a clinical trial, e.g. measuring body weight changes in a randomized (cross-over) experiment over a (prolonged) period of time for both morning and evening poo-ers. If proven effective, this could be a costless novel approach in our fight against obesity and its harmful sequelae."
Por cierto, generó cierta polémica en la revista.
"Losing weight by defaecating at night theory: The gastroenterologists’ perspective"
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2006.08.006
"We read with surprise the correspondence piece by Drs. Aziz from the Department of Neurology in Leiden University, who proposed to defaecate at night in order to lose weight. If their hypothesis was correct then obesity would have been less frequent among people suffering from chronic constipation, because, according to the theory of Drs. Aziz, they should have higher energy expenditure as they always carry out their everyday activities “with a few extra ounces of luggage” and their appetite should be decreased owing to a nearly full colon. However, epidemiologic studies prove just the opposite, showing an association between chronic constipation and obesity.
Further epidemiologic studies in large adult non-patient populations show that 77% defaecate in the morning. This habit is not only attributed to stimulation of bowel movements by physical activity as Drs. Aziz explained, but also because the bowel movements follow specific circadian dynamics; specifically, the acrophase of the circadian rhythm of rectal reactivity is during the morning hours, while in the daytime and evening this parameter is decreased almost 7-fold. This practically means that intentionally inhibiting the bowel’s normal activity may deregulate the bowel’s biologic clock, initially causing a form of intestinal bradyarrhythmia and finally constipation, a potential risk factor for colon cancer. It is thus important to stress that people should always respond to a defaecatory urge because failure to do so causes constipation. Moreover, the restrain required to counterbalance the increased tendency to discharge during the day will obviously have a negative impact both on the quality of life and the productivity of the people who would wish to follow the advice of Drs. Aziz in order to lose weight, as their concentration will be focused on how to avoid defaecation rather than work.
Our gastroenterological suggestion for weight loss would be to adhere to simple methods such as a balanced Mediterranean-style diet (shown to be very effective for weight loss in short- and long-term follow up) and to encourage physical activity, particularly in neurological patients (e.g. in Parkinson’s disease) in whom physical inactivity may be a relevant factor to induce constipation."
Este tiene que ser buenísimo: cómo perder peso cagando por la noche.
http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/ymehy/article/PIIS0306987706003148/abstract
#1 Es curioso porque además este mecanismo dificulta el intercambio de datos entre colegas. Se atesoran como el oro los dragones a la espera de que en algún momento les resulten útiles a la hora de escribir un nuevo artículo a pesar de que en su mayor parte han sido recolectados utilizando dinero público. De esta manera se empobrece todo todo el mundo.
Totalmente de acuerdo y especialmente sensibilizado. Yo hace unos meses aterrice en USA para investigar y mi gran sorpresa ha sido la de mierda que se publica y además de forma intencionada. Es como una cadena de montaje, donde no importa la calidad de la ciencia (¿ciencia?) sino sacar artículos a cascoporro.
La verdad es que desilusiona bastante ver en lo que se esta convirtiendo esto.