Getting paid for publishing

According to Nature's news (subscriber's only), the governments of South Korea, China, and Pakistan are paying scientists to publish their work in high impact journals. Here is what is awarded by country:


South Korea: $3000
China: $250/impact factor point - $50,000
Pakistan: $1000 - $20,000

The amount in the award in some countries vary by institution, and also by the impact factor of the journal of publication.

Another article in Nature stated the ideal position of most scientists:
"[Scientists] are supposed to be motivated by curiosity, by a devotion to finding the truth, by a desire to solve various philosophical or social problems — not by money."
Although this is a belief I have espoused on several occassions, even in the US it is met with a bit of derision and jabs at my naivety. Thus, I just want to say in conclusion that we should not turn our noses up so quickly at the way these other countries offer incentives to scientists. Although the US government does not explicitly give money for publications, there is an air of science being done for the money at many institutions. As the Director of the NIH told members of Congress a few months ago, the amount of grant money given to many institutions in 2003 seemed fuel the ongoing competition of how many cranes an intitution had.