Italian professorships

Abstract

SIR -The most recent round of applications (concorsi) for full university professorship throughout Italy is just struggling to a close.It seems that things are at last changing, and that the move of protest is registering its first results.Those who want the system changed say that the scandalous pressure on candidates, teachers and committees must be outlawed.Computerized analyses of scientific publications allow immediate comparison of applicants by objective parameters.The impact factor and citation index can no longer be ignored as objective approaches to evaluation of scientific candidates.Two examples (see figure) demonstrate the clear superiority of our record compared to the majority of the successful candidates.Our applications were nevertheless unsuccessful.To add insult to injury, the weakest winners were a F.B.