Publish or perish

"Publish or perish" is an aphorism describing the pressure to publish academic work in order to succeed in 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.

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

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.[6]

Origin

The earliest known use of the term in an academic context was in a 1928 journal article.[7][8] The phrase appeared in a non-academic context in the 1932 book, Archibald Cary Coolidge: Life and Letters, by Harold Jefferson Coolidge.[9] In 1938, the phrase appeared in a college-related publication.[10] According to Eugene Garfield, the expression first appeared in an academic context in Logan Wilson's book, "The Academic Man: A Study in the Sociology of a Profession", published in 1942.[11]

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.[12]

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.[13] 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."[14]

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.[15]

Also, publish-or-perish is linked to scientific misconduct or at least questionable ethics.[16] It has also been argued that the quality of scientific work has suffered due to publication pressures. Physicist Peter Higgs, namesake of the Higgs boson, was quoted in 2013 as saying that academic expectations since the 1990s would likely have prevented him from both making his groundbreaking research contributions and attaining 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."[17]

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.[18]

Variants

The MIT Media Lab's director Nicholas Negroponte instituted the motto "demo or die", privileging demonstrations over publication.[19] Director Joi Ito modified this to "deploy or die", emphasizing the adoption of the technology.[20]

See also

Notes
  1. "Publish or perish". Nature. 467 (7313): 252. 2010. Bibcode:2010Natur.467..252.. doi:10.1038/467252a. PMID 20844492.
  2. Fanelli, D. (2010). Scalas, Enrico (ed.). "Do Pressures to Publish Increase Scientists' Bias? An Empirical Support from US States Data". PLOS ONE. 5 (4): e10271. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...510271F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010271. PMC 2858206. PMID 20422014.
  3. Neill, U. S. (2008). "Publish or perish, but at what cost?". Journal of Clinical Investigation. 118 (7): 2368. doi:10.1172/JCI36371. PMC 2439458. PMID 18596904.
  4. Irons, Jessica G.; Buskist, William (2009). "Chapter 9: Preparing for a Career at a Teaching Institution". In Davis, Stephen F.; Giordano, Peter J.; Licht, Carolyn A. (eds.). Your Career in Psychology: Putting Your Graduate Degree to Work. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 117–132. ISBN 9781405179423. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  5. Gad-El-Hak, M. (2004). "Publish or Perish—An Ailing Enterprise?". Physics Today. 57 (3): 61–62. Bibcode:2004PhT....57c..61G. doi:10.1063/1.1712503.
  6. Liu, Xue-Li; Gai, Shuang-Shuang; Zhou, Jing (2016). "Journal Impact Factor: Do the Numerator and Denominator Need Correction?". PLOS ONE. 11 (3): e0151414. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1151414L. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0151414. PMC 4792445. PMID 26977697.
  7. Case, Clarence Marsh (1928). "Scholarship in Sociology". Sociology and Social Research. 12: 323–340. ISSN 0038-0393. LCCN sn83004127. OCLC 5088377 – via Google Books.
  8. Doyle, Charles Clay; Mieder, Wolfgang; Shapiro, Fred R. (22 May 2012). The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Yale University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0300136029.
  9. Coolidge, Harold Jefferson; Lord, Robert Howard (22 March 1932). Archibald Cary Coolidge: Life and Letters. Books for Libraries Press. ISBN 9780836966411 – via Google Books.
  10. "Association of American Colleges Bulletin". The Association. 22 March 1938 – via Google Books.
  11. Eugene Garfield (June 1996). "What Is The Primordial Reference for the Phrase 'Publish Or Perish'?" (PDF). The Scientist. 10 (12): 11.
  12. Vuong, Q.-H. (2019). "Breaking barriers in publishing demands a proactive attitude". Nature Human Behaviour. 3 (10): 1034. doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0667-6. PMID 31602012.
  13. Decca, Aitkenhead. "Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system". The Guardian.
  14. Paglia, Camille. Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the Wolf. First published in Arion Spring 1991, republished in Paglia's Sex, Art and American Culture: New Essays (Vintage, 1992) ISBN 9780679741015
  15. Bauerlein, Mark (17 November 2011). "Literary Research: Costs and Impact". Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  16. Wesel, M. van (2016). "Evaluation by Citation: Trends in Publication Behavior, Evaluation Criteria, and the Strive for High Impact Publications". Science and Engineering Ethics. 22 (1): 199–225. doi:10.1007/s11948-015-9638-0. PMC 4750571. PMID 25742806.
  17. Aitkenhead, Decca. Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system, The Guardian 6 December 2013; accessed 24 August 2016
  18. Ghiasi, Gita; Larivière, Vincent; Sugimoto, Cassidy R. (2015). "On the Compliance of Women Engineers with a Gendered Scientific System". PLOS ONE. 10 (12): e0145931. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1045931G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145931. PMC 4696668. PMID 26716831.
  19. Computers and People 33–37:1:7, 1984 (?)
  20. Nancy Duvergne Smith, "Deploy or Die—Media Lab Director's New Motto", Slice of MIT, July 29, 2014

References
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