When the new type pneumonia in Wuhan entered an important stage, the Ministry of science and Technology issued a notice: all scientific research units are required to bear the heavy burden bravely, write papers on the motherland, apply scientific research achievements to epidemic prevention and control, and should not focus on publishing papers before the epidemic prevention and control task is completed. This document is the call of the Ministry of science and technology to carry out the instructions of general secretary Xi Jinping to write the papers on the earth and to the national scientific and technological circles. Chen Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and researcher of the Academy of military medicine of the Academy of Military Sciences, also said in an exclusive interview with China Science Daily on January 31: "there is nothing wrong with the publication of the paper itself. However, the timely disclosure and sharing of key data is conducive to the concerted efforts of all parties in epidemic prevention and control, which is a problem that needs to be concerned and guaranteed by legislation. ".

The document of the Ministry of science and technology puts forward a very good old and new important topic for scientific and technological personnel, that is, the relationship between scientific research, published papers and social service. Because, in our country at present, it is particularly important to correctly understand the relationship between the three. Taking the new type of coronary pneumonia incident in Wuhan as an example, the scientific and technological personnel of our academic institutions, enterprises and institutions are at the forefront of the epidemic situation, and all the research results should be used to guide "disease prevention and control", provide scientific basis for government decision-making, and correctly guide the public to fight against the new type of coronary pneumonia. In fact, there is no contradiction between publishing research results and providing decision-making suggestions, but there should be a focus and priority. As a responsible and conscientious scientist, there should be no objection to this.

As we all know, scientific research can be roughly divided into basic research (including pure basic research and applied basic research) and applied research (including technology research and development). As tuukka petaja, a professor at the University of Helsinki in Finland, said, "basic research and applied transformation are just like the circular chain in traditional Chinese Yin Yang studies. Basic research is the process of producing knowledge with money, while from applied research to technological innovation and serving the society is the process of knowledge creating money. In this process, knowledge wealth and economic wealth continue to accumulate. If our basic and applied research results closely related to social services can not improve the quality of life of the public, the value of knowledge will be greatly reduced.

This reminds me of Mr. Hua Luogeng, a famous mathematician in China, who popularized the "optimization method" in the 1970s. When I graduated and stayed in Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province, I worked in the May 7th geological team. It seems that Mr. Hua personally went to Danjiangkou City to publicize the "optimization method". The mainstream research direction of Mr. Hua belongs to the number theory with pure basic properties, and his scientific level is well-known in the world. Obviously, the promotion of "optimization method" is the "original intention" of Mr. Hua's attempt to serve the national economy with applied mathematics, which is undoubtedly worthy of praise. The knowledge produced by science and technology has multiple characteristics. Some knowledge satisfies people's curiosity, and some knowledge can be directly or indirectly transformed into productivity to serve economic and social development.

Academic paper is one of the manifestations of scientific and technological achievements, which embodies the priority of achievements, the needs of achievements sharing and scientific evaluation. Therefore, publishing academic papers is one of the daily work of scientific and technological personnel, especially those in academic institutions (universities and research institutions), which is not contradictory to serving the society. Our management departments need to formulate a feasible scientific evaluation policy that is "in line with the law of scientific and Technological Development and China's national conditions", and correctly handle the relationship between "scientific research, scientific papers and social services".

We have paid a huge price for this "lung disease" incident. Our scientific and technological workers should establish the consciousness of serving the national economy and social development, not just for publishing papers. It is a scientific and practical measure that the Ministry of science and technology proposes to write the paper on the motherland. In my understanding, the models of "writing papers in the motherland" are tu youyou and Yuan Longping. The former is famous in the world for its scientific and technological achievements serving medical treatment and saving millions of malaria patients, and has won the only natural science Nobel Prize in China so far; the latter, Mr. Yuan Longping's rice scientific research achievements have made outstanding contributions to the food needed by the people of the world. Their representative works have been published in Chinese academic journals, among which Mr. Yuan Longping's representative works have been published in the Science Bulletin. A few years ago, the Science Bulletin specially commemorated the 50th anniversary of the publication of Yuan Longping's paper on Science Bulletin. It also shows that there is no contradiction between serving the society and publishing academic papers. We should not simply use the number of papers and publications as the basis for evaluating the level of results.

My students who work in American enterprises once told me that although their work belongs to applied technology service, they do not exclude publishing papers, and the company also awarded 2000 US dollars to employees for publishing a professional journal and academic paper. I once asked the leader of a large domestic state-owned enterprise how the management of the domestic enterprise looked at the relationship between scientific and technological innovation services and academic papers. This leader told me with specific examples that he was responsible for hosting important international professional academic conferences. I think this enterprise leader with modern science and technology consciousness advocates that scientific and technological personnel publish papers not only for the promotion of staff titles, but also for scientific and technological personnel to improve their scientific and technological ability through publishing papers, which has far-reaching significance for the long-term development of enterprises.