Publish or Perish Information

"Publish or perish" refers to the pressure to publish work constantly to further or sustain a career in academia. The competition for tenure-track faculty positions in academia puts increasing pressure on scholars to publish new work frequently.

Frequent publication is one of the few methods at a scholar's disposal to improve his or her visibility, and the attention that successful publications bring to scholars and their sponsoring institutions helps ensure steady progress through the field and continued funding. Scholars who focus on non-publishing-related activities (such as instructing undergraduates), or who publish too infrequently, may find themselves out of contention for available tenure-track positions.^{[citation needed]}

A scholarly writer may experience pressure to publish constantly, regardless of the academic field in which the writer conducts scholarship. One physicist, for example, sees evidence of shoddy scholarship in the field.^[1] In the 1990s, graduate students and untenured assistant professors in the humanities and social sciences may have experienced more pressure than academics in the natural sciences, but after 2000, the pressure spread into other disciplines and the phenomenon came to influence the advancement of tenured associate professors to the coveted full professor title in the United States. Because of declining enrollments in MBA programs, business school professors are also significantly under pressure in the mid-2000s.

Origin

The phrase is thought to have originated around 1950 with Kimball C. Atwood, then a geneticist at Columbia University. Ironically, Atwood never published the phrase himself; thus, evidence of his coining the phrase remains anecdotal. As the story goes, Atwood had only to wait a month before he heard it delivered in an address by a visiting lecturer, who afterward told Atwood he heard the phrase from a participant in Atwood's originating conversation.^[2][3]

Another source is provided by Eugene Garfield who traced the "publish or perish" expression back to "The Academic Man: A Study in the Sociology of a Profession, a 1942 book by Logan Wilson (New York, Oxford University Press, reprinted in 1964 by Octagon Books, New York, and in 1992 and 1995 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, N.J.)".^[4]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Disadvantages

There are a number of criticisms of this phenomenon, the most notable 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 manage, rather than spend time developing significant research agendas.

The pressure to publish-or-perish also detracts from the time and effort professors can devote to teaching undergraduate (and some graduate) courses. The rewards for exceptional teaching rarely match the rewards for exceptional research, which encourages faculty to favor the latter whenever they conflict.^{[citation needed]}

Many universities do not focus on teaching ability when they hire new faculty, and simply look at the publications list (and, especially in technology-related areas, the ability to bring in research money).^{[citation needed]} This single-minded focus on the professor-as-researcher may cause faculty to neglect or be unable to perform some other responsibilities.

Another important aspect of professorship is mentorship of graduate students, an aspect rarely assessed when new faculty are admitted to a department.^{[citation needed]}

Regarding the humanistic disciplines, teaching and passing on the tradition of Literae Humaniores is often placed in a very secondary position in research universities and treated as a non-scholarly activity, to the detriment of high culture. Hanson and Heath have polemicized against this in their book, Who Killed Homer.

See also

• Academic publishing
• Impact factor
• Least publishable unit
• Tenure
• Michael Spivak, founder of Publish-or-Perish Press

Notes

1. ^ Mohamed Gad-el-Hak (March 2004). "Publish or Perish — An Ailing Enterprise?". Physics Today 57 (3): 61. doi:10.1063/1.1712503.
2. ^ Sojka, R.E. and Mayland, H.F. (1993) Driving science with one eye on the peer review mirror. pp. 203-206. In: Forum proceedings, "Ethics, Values, and the Promise of Science". USA-CA-San Francisco, 1993/02/25-26. Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, Research Triangle Park, NC.
3. ^ The Perils of Industrialization: How the industrialization of academic science has ruined research, and what we can do about it. By András Aszódi
4. ^ Eugene Garfield (June 1996). "What Is The Primordial Reference For The Phrase 'Publish Or Perish'?". The Scientist 10 (12): 11. http://www.f1000scientist.com/article/display/17052.

References

• Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom. New York: The Free Press, 1998.
• Thomas K. Grose "21st Century Professor" ASEE Prism, January 2007
• Richard L.S. Evans, "Chrysoloras' Greek: The Pedagogy of Cultural Transformation."
• Herb, Ulrich (2010) "Sociological implications of scientific publishing: Open access, science, society, democracy, and the digital divide" First Monday, Volume 15, Number 2 - 1 February 2010
• Publish or Perish calculates various statistics, including the h-index and the g-index using Google Scholar data

Categories: Academic publishing

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