Preliminary Material / Chuing Prudence Chou 周祝瑛 -- Promoting the Global University in Taiwan / Ka Ho Mok -- The Political Economy of Quantitative Indexes for Measuring Academic Performance / Huei Huang Wang -- A Difficult Situation of Higher Education in Taiwan / Jason Chih-Yu Chan and Chia-Nian Lee -- To Be or Not to Be / Shao-Wen Su -- ISI Perceptions and Hard Facts / Gregory S. Ching -- Reflections from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Its Influence on Education Research in Taiwan / (Kent) Sheng Yao Cheng , W. James Jacob and Shen-Keng Yang -- Problems, Strategies, and Impact of SSCI Publication in English / June Yichun Liu -- Perishing Confucius / Li-ying Wu and Alexandra Bristow -- Has Higher Education Lost Its Soul? / Chuing Prudence Chou -- About the Contributors / Chuing Prudence Chou 周祝瑛 -- Index / Chuing Prudence Chou 周祝瑛.

As a result of the world class university rankings, many governments adopt public incentives and sanctions to push universities to excel. Above all, the better faculty research publication in SSCI and SCI journals, the more resources and social prestige universities will obtain. This timely book attempts to relate these dilemmas in Taiwan to many non-English speaking counterparts which also struggle with the worldwide SSCI syndrome. A spectre is haunting almost all universities in the world, including Taiwan—the spectre of “indexization.” Academics, particularly social scientists are panting from the pressure of globally spread neoliberal ideology and market-based principles. Collegiality on campus in the good old days has declined, and managerialism gained power instead. Competitive funding and university rankings are excessively emphasized, and research results are required to be internationalized, i.e., published in English. Although this book is a case study of so-called SSCI syndrome in Taiwan, the problems and challenges as well as prescription contained here are common to all academics, especially those in the non-English speaking countries positioned as “peripheral.”.

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