最近接到某期刊编辑部的修改意见，要求将我论文摘要中的“本文/笔者试图论证”、“本文指出”等字眼去掉，用第三人称进行改述。似乎前一种表述太主观，而学术研究需要客观（这背后的动机是要求人文社科的研究具有像自然科学那样的客观性？）。这不是我第一次遇到类似修改意见；我碰到这种要求通常很崩溃，因为实在不知道要怎么改。据我跟不少学界同行交流，他们也经常碰到此类要求，并深受困扰。我觉得这是一个很莫名其妙的要求。如果我的一篇论文就某学术问题提出了A观点，我当然要在摘要中表达这一点（并且，我只能说那是我的观点），以便我的同行们可以快速判断这篇论文是否值得一读。比如，我发表在Journal of Moral Philosophy上的一篇论文，其摘要是这样写的：
Abstract:
The moral principle of fairness or fair play is widely believed to be a solid ground for political obligation, i.e., a general prima facie moral duty to obey the law qua law.
In this article, I advance
a new and, more importantly, principled objection to fairness theories of political obligation……(以下省略)
很明显，摘要第二句中包含了“In this article, I advance”这样据说是很不“客观”的词。但是对公平政治义务理论的一个新反驳就是我提出的观点，它不是一个客观的事实或规律。如果按照中文某些期刊关于“第三人称”要求，这要怎么改？
我无力也无意从学科性质的视角（比如论证人文社科从根本上不同于自然科学）来进一步阐述为什么这个“第三人称”要求是荒唐的。但我们不妨来看看人文社科类国际主流学术期刊的论文摘要是否都不允许出现“本文以为/论证”或“我以为/论证”等字眼。
首先我们来看我相对熟悉的哲学类期刊。我上面的一个例子已经多少表明不存在“第三人称”要求（我其他的英文论文同样没有遭遇过此要求），但或许我那个期刊不够权威，因此学术规范的要求没有很严格。那么我们就来看看Journal of Philosophy, Ethics两个顶级期刊上最新论文的摘要
(为方便读者，摘要中那些不客观的“敏感词”已被加粗)
。
例1
： Stephanie Collins, “Filling Collective Duty Gaps,” The Journal of Philosophy 114, no.11（November 2017）：573-591.
Abstract:
A collective duty gap arises when a group has caused harm that requires remedying but no (or not enough) member(s) did harm that can justify the imposition of individual remedial duties. Examples range from airplane crashes to climate change. How might collective duty gaps be filled?
This paper starts by examining
two promising proposals for filling them. Both proposals are found inadequate. Thus, while gap-filling duties can be defended against objections from unfairness and demandingness, we need a substantive justification for their existence.
I argue
that substantive justification can be found in the normative force of commitments individuals make to others with regard to ends. Along the way,
I argue
that gap-filling duties must be conceptualized differently in group agents, as compared to non-agent groups: in the former, gap-filling duties can be understood as duties to “take up the slack”; in the latter, this would be a category error.
例2
：David Enoch, "Hypothetical Consent and the Value(s) of Autonomy," Ethics 128, no. 1 (October 2017): 6-36.
Abstract:
Hypothetical consent is puzzling. On the one hand, it seems to make a moral difference across a wide range of cases. On the other hand, there seem to be principled reasons to think that it cannot.
In this article I put forward
reasonably precise formulations of these general suspicions regarding hypothetical consent;
I draw
several distinctions regarding the ways in which hypothetical consent may make a moral difference;
I distinguish
between two autonomy-related concerns, nonalienation and sovereignty; and, utilizing these distinctions,
I show
that—and in a preliminary way, when—the objections to the moral significance of hypothetical consent fail.
需要略加说明的是，考虑到篇幅，每个期刊我只给出一个例子（其实可以找到更多），但这足以说明上述期刊并未采纳“第三人称”要求。下同。
我们再来看看历史类期刊。历史研究我不熟悉，无从判断哪个是权威期刊，所以就根据A&HCI历史类名单，分别以A和W开头选了The American Historical Review和Western Historical Quarterly两个期刊。
例3
：Macabe Keliher, “The Problem of Imperial Relatives in Early Modern Empires and the Making of Qing China,” The American Historical Review 122, no.4 (October 2017):1001–1037.
Abstract:
Throughout early modern Eurasia, rulers grappled with the problem of their relatives. Although their kin could offer support and investiture in the prosperity of the dynasty, rulers were also threatened by them with internal rivalry and challenges for the throne.
This article argues
that focusing on how a ruler dealt with the fundamental problem of imperial relatives can illuminate the institutional arrangements of imperial power while still accounting for variation across space.
The article takes up
the case of the Manchus and the formation of their Qing dynasty in seventeenth-century China,
and shows
how political and cultural circumstances shaped institutional outcomes...(以下略)
例4
：Sarah Eppler Janda,“‘Even Mild Protest Is Not Generally Considered to Be Very Patriotic’: Surveillance Culture and the Rise of the ‘Sooner CIA’,”Western Historical Quarterly 48, no.4 (October 2017):393–414.
Abstract:
This article examines
the emergence of Oklahoma’s Office of Inter-agency Coordination (OIC)—an organization that one exposé dubbed the “Sooner CIA” (Central Intelligence Agency).
The article sets
the OIC within the context of a growing national culture of surveillance, driven in part by fears of race riots and widespread unrest during the Vietnam War Era. Examining the connection between the OIC, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), and the Army spy scandal illustrates that Oklahoma’s surveillance activities and civil disorder planning were part of a larger nationwide erosion of civil liberties.
或许人文类期刊本来就不够“客观”，所以再摘要中可以豁免“第三人称”要求。那相对更为客观的社会科学类期刊会执行该要求么？答案是否定的。我分别选了American Political Science Review, American Sociological Review和 American Economic Review三个期刊。
例5
： GARETH NELLIS, NILOUFER SIDDIQUI, “Secular Party Rule and Religious Violence in Pakistan,” American Political Science Review, First View, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055417000491,Published online: 27 November 2017, pp. 1-19
Abstract:
Does secular party incumbency affect religious violence? Existing theory is ambiguous. On the one hand, religiously motivated militants might target areas that vote secularists into office. On the other hand, secular party politicians, reliant on the support of violence-hit communities, may face powerful electoral incentives to quell attacks. Candidates bent on preventing bloodshed might also sort into such parties. To adjudicate these claims,
we combine
constituency-level election returns with event data on Islamist and sectarian violence in Pakistan (1988–2011). For identification,
we compare
districts where secular parties narrowly won or lost elections.
We find
that secularist rule causes a sizable reduction in local religious conflict. Additional analyses suggest that the result stems from electoral pressures to cater to core party supporters and not from politician selection. The effect is concentrated in regions with denser police presence, highlighting the importance of state capacity for suppressing religious disorder.
例6
： Lauren A. Rivera, “When Two Bodies Are (Not) a Problem: Gender and Relationship Status Discrimination in Academic Hiring,” American Sociological Review 82, no.6 (October 2017): 1111-1138.
Abstract:
Junior faculty search committees serve as gatekeepers to the professoriate and play vital roles in shaping the demographic composition of academic departments and disciplines, but how committees select new hires has received minimal scholarly attention.
In this article, I highlight
one mechanism of gender inequalities in academic hiring: relationship status discrimination. Through a qualitative case study of junior faculty search committees at a large R1 university,
I show
that committees actively considered women’s—but not men’s—relationship status when selecting hires. ...Consequently,
I show
that the “two-body problem” is a gendered phenomenon embedded in cultural stereotypes and organizational practices that can disadvantage women in academic hiring.
I conclude
by discussing the implications of such relationship status discrimination for sociological research on labor market inequalities and faculty diversity.
例7
：Abdulkadiroğlu, Atila, Nikhil Agarwal, and Parag A. Pathak, “The Welfare Effects of Coordinated Assignment: Evidence from the New York City High School Match,” American Economic Review 107, no.12(December 2017): 3635-89.
Abstract:
Coordinated single-offer school assignment systems are a popular education reform.
We show
that uncoordinated offers in NYC's school assignment mechanism generated mismatches. One-third of applicants were unassigned after the main round and later administratively placed at less desirable schools.
We evaluate
the effects of the new coordinated mechanism based on deferred acceptance using estimated student preferences. The new mechanism achieves 80 percent of the possible gains from a no-choice neighborhood extreme to a utilitarian benchmark. Coordinating offers dominates the effects of further algorithm modifications. Students most likely to be previously administratively assigned experienced the largest gains in welfare and subsequent achievement.
最后，我没忍住，去看了下自然科学的顶级期刊Nature。废话少说，请看下例：
例8
：Patrick T. Brown & Ken Caldeira, “Greater future global warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget,” Nature 552, 45–50 (07 December 2017), doi:10.1038/nature24672
Abstract:
Climate models provide the principal means of projecting global warming over the remainder of the twenty-first century but modelled estimates of warming vary by a factor of approximately two even under the same radiative forcing scenarios. Across-model relationships between currently observable attributes of the climate system and the simulated magnitude of future warming have the potential to inform projections. Here
we show
that robust across-model relationships exist between the global spatial patterns of several fundamental attributes of Earth’s top-of-atmosphere energy budget and the magnitude of projected global warming.
When we constrain
the model projections with observations,
we obtain
greater means and narrower ranges of future global warming across the major radiative forcing scenarios, in general. In particular,
we find
that the observationally informed warming projection for the end of the twenty-first century for the steepest radiative forcing scenario is about 15 per cent warmer (+0.5 degrees Celsius) with a reduction of about a third in the two-standard-deviation spread (−1.2 degrees Celsius) relative to the raw model projections reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Our results suggest
that achieving any given global temperature stabilization target will require steeper greenhouse gas emissions reductions than previously calculated.
真相大白有木有？！原来自然科学的论文摘要中也没有“第三人称”规定啊！
不知道那些严格执行“第三人称”要求的中文人文社科类期刊对此怎么看？上述研究全部不够客观？或许，是时候废除这个（于我而言简直是摘要杀手）的“第三人称”要求了。
