Abstract

Albeit its constitutional claim for quality, Brazilian academia has largely been referred to as unmeritocratic and academic hiring is still inward-oriented. Lattes platform, a public curricular information system, reflects elements of this protectionism. This article assesses two ‘obsessions’ in Brazilian academia: (i) the ‘mandatory’ Lattes CV, and (ii) the candidates’ assessment criteria in public tenders for faculty positions. Several pros and cons (mostly) of the Lattes platform are identified. The following improvements are proposed: (i) evaluations in public tenders based only on candidate’s CV, interview, and a sample lecture, (ii) the dismissal of Lattes CV as a mandatory format, and (iii) the use of platforms as Microsoft Academic, Google Scholar, ORCID or ResearcherID for curricular information. With these recommendations, Brazil can move towards a more meritocratic academic hiring system.

Highlights

  • Meritocracy is a system in which individuals make progress and gain the fruits of their own efforts

  • This article aims to describe, analyze, and propose alternatives for two critical ‘obsessions’ taking place in Brazilian academia for a long time: (i) the way candidates are assessed in public tenders for faculty positions, and (ii) the mandatory Lattes CV

  • For the analysis presented in this paper, the authors requested the permission of CNPq to use screenshots of the Lattes platform and a few stored CVs

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Summary

Introduction

Meritocracy is a system in which individuals make progress and gain the fruits of their own efforts It uses pre-established criteria to assess people according to their performance, regardless their seniority and social networking. In ‘3%’, a 2016 Brazilian self-descriptive fictional work, merit can only be measured if one formulates the right maze of tests and administers them to every member of society in the same way [3]. This can be associated with what happens in Brazilian public tenders today, since their definition in the Federal Constitution of 1988 [4], and the case of academia is not excluded. Since academia is a place of innovation and knowledge production, one of its tasks should be the quest for paradigm changes, especially with respect to the traits desired for its employees [5]

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