6月24日出版的《自然》杂志（Nature）刊登了该杂志对全球16个国家的科学家对其职业的满意度的调查结果。满意度是一个综合指标，包括8个因素——薪酬、假期、医疗保险、产假、退休福利、每周工作时间、工作的独立性和来自导师与同僚的帮助指导。

“《自然》公布全球科学家薪水调查结果”的链接：http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2010/6/233808.shtm

同时，《自然》杂志还事先邀请包括笔者在内5位专家就调查结果撰写评论。笔者按要求写了400字的短评，指出中国科学家在薪酬和来自导师与同僚的帮助指导两个指标得分最低。中国科学家可能比较年轻，能找到专业对口的工作是第一位的，较少关注医疗保险、产假、退休福利等。中国科学家的职业满意度超过日本科学家，也许反映的并不是现实，而是他们对未来的展望。

经过反复修改后刊出的短评"Happy China'的链接：http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v465/n7301/pdf/4651006a.pdf

笔者短评的原稿如下（笔者对“中国男女科学家并没有因为性别造成收入差异”存疑的解读被删除了）：

Earned less, Chinese scientists more satisfied than their counterparts in Japan

Cong Cao

The Levin Institute

State University of New York

What the Nature survey of scientists in 16 countries surprises me most is that Chinese scientists are more satisfied with their work than their counterparts in Japan.

According to the Satisfaction Index (SI), a composite index of dimensions including salary, benefits, and working environment, Japan not only scores lowest but also has witnessed the smallest improvement in terms of job satisfaction of scientists among the four Asian countries – China, India, Japan, and South Korea.

In fact, Japanese scientists registered lowest scores in 6 of the 8 dimensions that scientists were asked to assess, from vacation time, maternity or paternity leave, total hours worked per week, pension or retirement plan, degree of independence, and guidance received from superiors or co-workers.  About a quarter of them experienced salary drop amid the global financial crisis, the most among the survey respondents.  In the meantime, scientists in China, along with those in India and South Korea, also reported rapid improvement of job satisfaction than their counterparts in Japan.

While Chinese scientists seem to be quite happy, they are disappointed with their earning power associated with their advanced education – their salary is the lowest among Asian scientists, and indeed, among the scientists surveyed.  This is somewhat expected as Chinese scientists have had difficulties securing positions related to their training with the recent enrollment enlargement in higher education and the increasing return of the Chinese scientists trained overseas.

But the good news is that there shows no earning gap between male and female scientists – according to the survey, China is the only country where female make slightly more money than male scientists, and the gap could be as big as 40 percent in Japan and 19 percent in the U.S.  But this may be misleading as bias against female is widespread in the Chinese scientific community.

On the other hand, Chinese scientists are less worried about benefits such as healthcare, maternity and paternity leave, and retirement plan.  This may imply either they are too energetic to be concerned about these benefits or job security really takes precedence.  The low level of satisfaction with guidance received from superiors or co-workers and the high level of satisfaction with degree of independence pinpoint a same problem – mentoring is failing in China.

Without knowing the profile of the scientists surveyed, especially their professional ages, ranks, and disciplines and sectors in which they work, I could not infer too much from this survey.  The contrasting job satisfaction between Chinese and Japanese scientists may suggest the determining factor of the economy, the question is how much of the responses reflects the reality or forward-looking attitude.