Academics are a funny lot. We all know the old adage, publish or perish. Among academics however there is also the I publish therefore I am. I am cited, therefore I continue to be. To give you an idea of how deeply ingrained this is, I will take Profs X and Y. Prof X has just moved here from the States with his family. He needed help getting a pediatrician as he was not familiar with the Canadian system. Because medical is "free", it really isnt just a matter of walking into an office and showing your health card. First you have to find a doctor who is taking new patients. Not so easy as the good ones have long wait lists. Then ideally you find one that isnt 30 miles away in some dodgy neighbourhood especially since you will be seeing the pediatrician least 20 times the first year alone. Sometimes you get lucky but more often than not you have to get an existing patient to "recommend" you..yup, cronyism survives in socialist systems. So I was recommended by a neighbour and I in turn recommended Prof X. I wondered why he was keen on seeing Dr F as he doesnt live in the neighbourhood. But hey, whatever rocks his boat. So last night D hitched a ride from Prof Y from the airport. During the ride it seems that Prof Y was hinting that he needed to change pediatricians. D did some digging and found out that Prof X had told Prof Y that Dr F is apparently not only a good pediatrician but more importantly, he is published, and even more significant, he is also very much cited due to the relevance of his research. D thinks I am genius for finding a published and cited pediatrician.I am not about to tell him that the extent on my criteria for choosing Dr F was that he be less than 2 blocks away. I am definitely not an academic at heart.