Part C: Translation (2019)

Part 1: Full Text (Click to Translate)

It was only after I started to write a weekly column about the medical journals, and began to read scientific papers from beginning to end, that I realised just how bad much of the medical literature frequently was. I came to recognise various signs of a bad paper: the kind of paper that purports to show that people who eat more than one kilo of broccoli a week were 1.17 times more likely than those who eat less to suffer late in life from pernicious anaemia. (46) There is a great deal of this kind of nonsense in the medical journals which, when taken up by broadcasters and the lay press, generates both health scares and short-lived dietary enthusiasms.

Why is so much bad science published? A recent paper, titled "The Natural Selection of Bad Science", published on the Royal Societys open science website, attempts to answer this intriguing and important question. It says that the problem is not merely that people do bad science, but that our current system of career advancement positively encourages it. What is important is not truth, but publication, which has become almost an end in itself. There has been a kind of inflationary process at work: (47) nowadays anyone applying for a research post has to have published twice the number of papers that would have been required for the same post only 10 years ago. Never mind the quality, then, count the number.

(48) Attempts have been made to curb this tendency, for example, by trying to incorporate some measure of quality as well as quantity into the assessment of an applicants papers. This is the famed citation index, that is to say the number of times a paper has been quoted elsewhere in the scientific literature, the assumption being that an important paper will be cited more often than one of small account. (49) This would be reasonable if it were not for the fact that scientists can easily arrange to cite themselves in their future publications, or get associates to do so for them in return for similar favours.

Boiling down an individuals output to simple metrics, such as number of publications or journal impacts, entails considerable savings in time, energy and ambiguity. Unfortunately, the long-term costs of using simple quantitative metrics to assess researcher merit are likely to be quite great. (50) If we are serious about ensuring that our science is both meaningful and reproducible, we must ensure that our institutions encourage that kind of science.

Part 2: Sentence Translation (Click to Expand)

(46)There is a great deal of this kind of nonsense in the medical journals which, when taken up by broadcasters and the lay press, generates both health scares and short-lived dietary enthusiasms.▶

(47)nowadays anyone applying for a research post has to have published twice the number of papers that would have been required for the same post only 10 years ago.▶

(48)Attempts have been made to curb this tendency, for example, by trying to incorporate some measure of quality as well as quantity into the assessment of an applicant's papers.▶

(49)This would be reasonable if it were not for the fact that scientists can easily arrange to cite themselves in their future publications, or get associates to do so for them in return for similar favours.▶

(50)If we are serious about ensuring that our science is both meaningful and reproducible, we must ensure that our institutions encourage that kind of science.▶

Part 3: Syntax Analysis (难点句型剖析)

(46) 句型拆解：定语从句与插入语
主干为 There is a great deal of this kind of nonsense...（存在大量这种废话）。其后的 which 引导非限制性定语从句，修饰前面的 nonsense。在 which 引导的从句内部，插入了一个时间状语 when taken up by broadcasters and the lay press（当被广播公司和非专业媒体采用时）。从句的真正谓语是 generates，宾语是由 both... and... 连接的 health scares 和 short-lived dietary enthusiasms。

(47) 句型拆解：分词后置定语与比较结构
主干为 anyone... has to have published twice the number of papers（任何人都必须发表两倍数量的论文）。主语 anyone 后面跟着现在分词短语 applying for a research post 作后置定语。在 papers 之后，跟了一个由 that 引导的定语从句 that would have been required for the same post only 10 years ago，这里使用了虚拟语气（would have been required）来表达与过去的对比。

(48) 句型拆解：被动语态与介词短语作方式状语
主干是 Attempts have been made to curb this tendency（遏制这种趋势的尝试已经被做出了），是被动语态。其后通过 by trying to incorporate... into... 引导方式状语（通过试图将...纳入到...中）。其中 as well as 连接了 quality 和 quantity，表示“既...也.../以及”。

(49) 句型拆解：虚拟语气与同位语从句
主干为 This would be reasonable if it were not for the fact that...（如果不是因为...的事实，这本来是合理的），这是一个典型的虚拟语气结构。that 引导的是同位语从句，用于解释 the fact 的具体内容。同位语从句中包含由 or 连接的两个并列动作：一是 arrange to cite themselves，二是 get associates to do so（让同事这样做）。

(50) 句型拆解：条件状语从句与宾语从句
句首是 If 引导的条件状语从句：If we are serious about ensuring that...（如果我们认真对待确保...这件事）。介词 about 后接动名词 ensuring，ensuring 后又接了一个 that 引导的宾语从句 that our science is both meaningful and reproducible。主句为 we must ensure that our institutions encourage that kind of science，其中又包含了一个 that 引导的宾语从句。