Publish or perish

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This article is about the concept in academia. For the Columbo episode, see
Columbo (season 3) § Episodes
.

"Publish or perish" is an

academic career.[1][2][3] Such institutional pressure is generally strongest at research universities.[4] Some researchers have identified the publish or perish environment as a contributing factor to the replication crisis
.

Successful publications bring attention to scholars and their sponsoring institutions, which can help continued funding and their careers. In popular academic perception, scholars who publish infrequently, or who focus on activities that do not result in publications, such as instructing

undergraduates, may lose ground in competition for available tenure-track positions. The pressure to publish has been cited as a cause of poor work being submitted to academic journals.[5] The value of published work is often determined by the prestige of the academic journal it is published in. Journals can be measured by their impact factor (IF), which is the average number of citations to articles published in a particular journal over the last two years.[6]

Origin

The earliest known use of the term in an academic context was in a 1928 journal article.

Kimball C. Atwood III.[12][13][14]

Advantages

Research-oriented universities may attempt to manage the unhealthy aspects of the publish or perish practices, but their administrators often argue that some pressure to produce cutting-edge research is necessary to motivate scholars early in their careers to focus on research advancement, and learn to balance its achievement with the other responsibilities of the professorial role. The call to abolish

tenure is very much a minority opinion in such settings.[15]

Disadvantages

This phenomenon has been strongly criticized, the most notable grounds being that the emphasis on publishing may decrease the value of resulting scholarship, as scholars must spend more time scrambling to publish whatever they can get into print, rather than spending time developing significant research agendas.[16] Similarly, humanities scholar Camille Paglia has described the publish or perish paradigm as "tyranny" and further writes that "The [academic] profession has become obsessed with quantity rather than quality. ... One brilliant article should outweigh one mediocre book."[17]

The pressure to publish or perish also detracts from the time and effort professors can devote to teaching undergraduate courses and mentoring graduate students. The rewards for exceptional teaching rarely match the rewards for exceptional research, which encourages faculty to favor the latter whenever they conflict.[18]

Also, publish-or-perish is linked to

tenure. "It's difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964," he said. "Today I wouldn't get an academic job. It's as simple as that. I don't think I would be regarded as productive enough."[20]

According to some researchers, the publish or perish culture might also perpetuate bias in academic institutions. Overall, women publish less frequently than men, and when they do publish their work receives fewer citations than their male counterparts, even when it is published in journals with significantly higher impact factors.[21] Furthermore, one study pointed out that gaps in the promotion and progress of women in academic medicine may be significantly influenced by gender-based variances in article citations.[22]

Variants

The MIT Media Lab's director Nicholas Negroponte instituted the motto "demo or die", privileging demonstrations over publication.[23] Director Joi Ito modified this to "deploy or die", emphasizing the adoption of the technology.[24]

See also

Notes

  1. PMID 20844492
    .
  2. PMID 20422014
    .
  3. PMID 18596904
    .
  4. ISBN 9781405179423
    . Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  5. doi:10.1063/1.1712503
    .
  6. PMID 26977697
    .
  7. OCLC 5088377
    – via Google Books.
  8. ISBN 978-0300136029
    .
  9. ISBN 9780836966411
    – via Google Books.
  10. JSTOR 40219435
    .
  11. ^ Eugene Garfield (June 1996). "What Is The Primordial Reference for the Phrase 'Publish Or Perish'?" (PDF). The Scientist. 10 (12): 11.
  12. ISBN 978-1-78643-493-7
    .
  13. ^ "Obituary: Kimball C. Atwood III". The Independent. 22 October 1992. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  14. ISBN 978-1-78643-493-7
    .
  15. PMID 31602012
    .
  16. ^ Decca, Aitkenhead. "Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system". The Guardian.
  17. ISBN 9780679741015
  18. ^ Bauerlein, Mark (17 November 2011). "Literary Research: Costs and Impact". Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  19. PMID 25742806
    .
  20. ^ Aitkenhead, Decca. Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system, The Guardian 6 December 2013; accessed 24 August 2016
  21. PMID 26716831
    .
  22. PMID 34213560
    .
  23. ^ Computers and People 33–37:1:7, 1984 (?)
  24. ^ Nancy Duvergne Smith, "Deploy or Die—Media Lab Director's New Motto", Slice of MIT, July 29, 2014 Archived 22 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine

References

External links

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