On Academic Freedom and Political Principle of Academic Journals
In China’s current academic periodical system, academic freedom and politics are an eternal issue. With the continuous development of economy and technology, academics have also made great progress. However, in the process of development, ideas are not unified, and thoughts from all sides are constantly emerging, which makes it easy for academics to take the wrong road of "left" or "right".
Connotation of academic freedom
Academic freedom includes academic authenticity and practicality.
Academic journals are the main positions where academic achievements can be published. As we all know, the most important feature of scholarship lies in its freedom. Academic freedom means that academics are based on objective existence, not on the will of any social group or individual. Adhering to academic freedom is the most fundamental factor for academic development. Academic freedom includes academic authenticity and practicality. Academic is the real law of the objective world, and the purpose of academic existence is to promote social development and human progress. Therefore, on the basis of authenticity, scholarship must also be practical and can be used to guide practice. In general, the value of academic achievements mainly lies in innovation, whether there are new research findings, whether new problems are raised or whether new research methods are applied.
Academic freedom must be carried out under certain conditions.
Freedom does not mean to be free from any constraints, but refers to freedom within a certain legal, reasonable and reasonable limit. Academic freedom must meet the following restrictions: First, obey the basic moral standards. Academic freedom should conform to the basic moral norms such as integrity and dignity, and should not exceed the moral bottom line of ordinary people. Although academic circles do not prohibit the appearance of academic articles involving some sharp or sensitive issues, these articles must also be on the basis of not violating the most basic human morality. Second, academic freedom must be carried out within the scope prescribed by law, for example, it cannot violate the relevant provisions of the law, such as publicizing the benefits of some violent crimes. This kind of academic research can not only promote the society, on the contrary, it is unfavorable to social development.
Grasp the degree of academic freedom
Academic freedom must be measured, not too much. Academic research and publication of results must also be within the basic scope to achieve freedom. Academics is a regular understanding of the objective world. In daily life, when it comes to academics, many people regard it as something profound and mysterious, but this is not the case. The key to the value of academic achievements lies in whether they are creative or not. Only by grasping the degree of academic freedom can we get a correct understanding of the academic itself.
Political nature of academic journals
Broadly speaking, everything in the country is political. This is especially true for newspapers and other media, which are the main positions of government propaganda activities. As the main carrier of academic achievements, academic journals must also be carried out within the scope of political permission and must also be political.
Generally speaking, academic journals include both natural sciences and humanities and social sciences. Academic research in natural sciences mostly reflects the objective laws of nature, while academic research in humanities and social sciences mostly involves the development laws of people and society. People and society have certain political attributes, and academic research cannot exist without politics. Therefore, academic journals will inevitably encounter the relationship between academic freedom and politics. Politics refers to issues related to national interests, people’s rights and obligations, while scholarship is an in-depth study and discussion of a certain social science field. Politics is from the macro aspect, while learning is from the micro aspect, which belongs to the political category.
Political nature of learning
The political nature of scholarship is mainly reflected in the following two points: First, scholarship also includes the study of politics. Academic research covers all aspects of social life, including politics. Academic research on politics is mostly based on the perspective of a certain interest group, and it should undoubtedly be highly political to serve a certain interest group. Second, ordinary academic research should also be political. Academics cannot develop at will, but must have a correct development direction and road, which needs political guidance. For ordinary people, academic journals play the role of propaganda and guidance. If they lack political nature, they will undoubtedly shake people’s beliefs and bring unstable factors to society.
Academics and politics are dialectical unity.
There are differences and connections between academics and politics, which complement and restrict each other. Whether it is an academic issue or a political issue, we must abide by objective laws. Academics must be carried out within the scope permitted by politics, and the development of academics is counterproductive to politics. Academics can promote political development, which in turn creates a more relaxed environment for academic development. If the academic and political direction do not match, it will be difficult to move forward, thus developing towards the correct development path in line with the political direction.
The essence of academic research
The essence of academic research is to serve social development, and in a sense, to serve the realization of national political goals. At present, China is in the tide of socialist modernization, and any work should be subject to this overall situation, and academic research is no exception. Academics do not exist in isolation, and their emergence and development are based on some political foundation. Because of a certain social demand, academics came into being. It has no practical significance to talk about academics without social and political needs. Academics must be considered in the overall economic and social development. Academic researchers draw a conclusion through in-depth investigation and research in a certain field, thus promoting economic and social development, which is the highest level of academic research serving politics. Of course, academic research is generally a research with a high degree of specialization in a certain field. This kind of research can’t be divorced from reality and can’t groan without illness. Research for the sake of research should be guided by correct politics.
How to grasp the relationship between them?
Party newspapers and journals are bound to be highly political, while academic journals are not so political. When it comes to academic journals, many people think that academics are the center, while politics is not so important. Some people even think that academics have nothing to do with politics or even are antagonistic. The disunity of this thought has led to a constant debate on the relationship between academic freedom and politics in the work of academic journals.
It is of great significance for the development of academic journals to grasp the relationship between academic freedom and politics. To grasp the relationship between academic freedom and politics, we should pay attention to the following aspects:
Academic freedom and politics are both related and different. On the one hand, under normal circumstances, academic research is done by individual scholars or groups headed by a scholar, which inevitably has personal feelings and personal views and opinions on politics. Especially the academic research on politics, it is more inevitable to reflect the individual political views of scholars. On the other hand, academic research generally only focuses on the fields it studies, and generally does not explicitly discuss specific political issues.
Adhere to the correct direction and principle of running a journal. For academic journals, the direction and principle of running journals are the most critical issues. If you don’t grasp the direction and principles of running a journal well, it is inevitable that you will do everything in the opposite direction. The international situation in today’s world is changing, and the western capitalist countries have never given up their penetration into China. At this critical moment, we should raise our political awareness and put an end to political mistakes. Readers of academic journals are mostly knowledge-based talents with higher education, and they have a strong understanding of things. If academic journals convey bad political information to them, it may cause serious consequences. Moreover, as a means of academic propaganda, academic journals have certain authority, should have a strong sense of responsibility, maintain sufficient rigor, and properly play their functions.
Pay attention to the political principles of manuscript selection. In the process of selecting manuscripts, we should not only pay attention to the problems studied by academic research institutes, but also pay attention to whether the authors have incorrect political orientation. Manuscripts that clearly violate the state’s major principles and policies should not be employed. At the same time, the authors of academic manuscripts must have a correct outlook on the world and life, and put forward original opinions on the problems studied on this basis.
The whole process of editing and publishing academic journals should conform to the provisions of national laws and policies. The formation process of academic journals needs many links, and each link should conform to the provisions of national laws and policies. The state has some special requirements for academic journals. Scholars must pay attention to the principles and policies formulated by the state in this field when conducting academic research. At the same time, reviewers of academic journals must also have a certain degree of understanding of the national laws and regulations of the articles they review. Moreover, in the process of peer review, some political issues need to be carefully examined by the reviewers many times, so as to do a good job in running academic journals at multiple levels and in all directions.
Focus on improving the professional quality and political quality of academic journal staff. The process of running academic journals is carried out by staff, and the quality of staff is closely related to the formation, publication and distribution of academic journals. The editing and reviewing of periodical manuscripts is a monotonous and boring job, which requires the staff to proofread every word patiently and carefully. Periodical staff should have high political quality, strong sensitivity, keep attention to political hot issues and focus issues, and at the same time have a certain degree of mastery of national laws and policies. In recent years, there are more and more kinds of academic journals, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce. How to face the new situation and meet the new challenges is a problem worthy of consideration by every academic journal staff.
In the process of running academic journals, we must fully grasp the relationship between academic freedom and political nature, which not only ensures academic freedom, but also ensures academic political nature, so that academic development is always on the right way forward.
(Author: Editorial Department of Journal of Taishan University)
Notes:
① Yang Dawei: On the Relationship between Academic Journals and Politics, Heilongjiang Social Sciences, No.6, 2011.
② Liang Shufa: "To run academic journals well, we should handle the relationship between academics and politics", The First Issue of Ideological and Theoretical Education, 2009.
③ Wu Wenqiang: On How to Deal with the Relationship between Politics and Academics of Academic Journals, Southland Today, No.3, 2010.