A Questionnaire Survey on Chinese Translation and Interpreting Scholars’ Publication Pressure and Its Impact on Research Quality and Publishing Ethics

Abstract

The issue of publishing ethics has been drawing attention from scholars of various fields, and this study focuses on the situation in translation and interpreting (T&I) studies. It surveys Chinese T&I researchers’ publication pressure and its impact on their research quality and publishing ethics via an online questionnaire and follow-up telephone interviews. Altogether, 124 respondents filled out the questionnaire, and 14 of them took part in the interviews. Data analyses reveal that the pressure caused by the limited number of T&I journals is the highest, there is significant correlation between this type of pressure and publishing ethics, and there is also significant association between publication pressure and research quality. The follow-up interviews confirmed the findings, and the discussions with interviewees suggest that using alternative evaluation methods such as the representative work method might be a way out of the current publishing dilemma.