Chinese medical doctors negotiating the pressure of the publication requirement

Abstract

China’s medical research has been growing in visibility at the international level in recent years. Contributing to this development is the English-publishing policy now often found in the country’s major hospitals. In this paper, I report a study conducted at the Orthopedics Department of a major hospital in east China. Based on interviews with eleven orthopedic surgeons who are expected to publish both Chinese and English (SCI) papers (with the latter privileged), I describe their reactions to the publication policy and their approaches to fulfilling the publication requirement. The paper will end by calling for more contextualized research that brings forth the voices of English as an Additional Language (EAL) researchers in various academic and professional contexts.