Publish-or-Perish Propagates Scientific Malpractice and Neglect

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.31234/osf.io/v4pjb ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chad Williams

Keyword(s):

Student Enrollment ◽

Scientific Practices ◽

Academic Interest ◽

Publish Or Perish ◽

Publication Count ◽

Major Strain ◽

Hiring Process ◽

Faculty Positions ◽

Publication Counts ◽

Mass Increase

Globally, there is an increase in academic interest. Student enrollment in universities are skyrocketing, suggesting an increased need to hold academic degrees. However, the mass increase in awarded PhDs with the stagnant number of faculty positions is causing a major strain in the academic hiring process. The result of this disparity is a necessary shift from holistically considering each scientist to briefly considering a subset of applicant metrics, for example publication counts. The increased emphasis of publication count metrics in hiring has led to the expression publish-or-perish. The publish-or-perish architecture shifts the focus of scientists away from meticulous scientific practices and contributions to society in order to ensure that they are outputting as many publications as possible. I here consider how the increased strain on the academic architecture is detrimental for faculty applicants and how it is propagating scientific malpractice and neglect.

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“Publish or Perish” is Alive and Well: A Re-Analysis of Landrum and Clump (2004)

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/07.11.pr0.108.2.617-624 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 108 (2) ◽

pp. 617-624

Author(s):

David P. Nalbone

Keyword(s):

Graduate Programs ◽

Public Institutions ◽

Application Process ◽

Teaching And Research ◽

Publish Or Perish ◽

Search Committee ◽

Psychology Faculty ◽

Faculty Positions ◽

Application Characteristics ◽

Measuring Agreement

A re-analysis was undertaken of Landrum and Clump's data reporting the results of a survey of search committee chairs' criteria for evaluating applicants for psychology faculty positions. Results indicated that 5 factors emerged from their agreement items (measuring agreement with specific statements about submitted applications) and 4 factors emerged from their importance items (measuring prioritization of specific application characteristics). Several of these factors, especially one focusing upon teaching and research emphasis, are useful to different degrees. These results suggest that public institutions with graduate programs differ from other institutions on criteria for applicants in several ways, particularly in their emphasis on research over teaching. Results may help applicants to better focus their efforts in the application process.

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A survey-based analysis of the academic job market

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.54097 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jason D Fernandes ◽

Sarvenaz Sarabipour ◽

Christopher T Smith ◽

Natalie M Niemi ◽

Nafisa M Jadavji ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Job Market ◽

Hiring Process ◽

Job Offers ◽

Faculty Positions ◽

Academic Job Market ◽

Number Of Publications ◽

Postdoctoral Researchers ◽

Lack Of Knowledge

Many postdoctoral researchers apply for faculty positions knowing relatively little about the hiring process or what is needed to secure a job offer. To address this lack of knowledge about the hiring process we conducted a survey of applicants for faculty positions: the survey ran between May 2018 and May 2019, and received 317 responses. We analyzed the responses to explore the interplay between various scholarly metrics and hiring outcomes. We concluded that, above a certain threshold, the benchmarks traditionally used to measure research success – including funding, number of publications or journals published in – were unable to completely differentiate applicants with and without job offers. Respondents also reported that the hiring process was unnecessarily stressful, time-consuming, and lacking in feedback, irrespective of outcome. Our findings suggest that there is considerable scope to improve the transparency of the hiring process.

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The Diagnosis of Viral Disease by Electron Microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010005398x ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 270-273

Author(s):

William B. McCombs ◽

Cameron E. McCoy

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Hospital Stay ◽

Viral Infections ◽

Medical Profession ◽

Bacterial Pathogens ◽

Viral Disease ◽

Viral Pathogens ◽

Academic Interest ◽

The Past

Recent years have brought a reversal in the attitude of the medical profession toward the diagnosis of viral infections. Identification of bacterial pathogens was formerly thought to be faster than identification of viral pathogens. Viral identification was dismissed as being of academic interest or for confirming the presence of an epidemic, because the patient would recover or die before this could be accomplished. In the past 10 years, the goal of virologists has been to present the clinician with a viral identification in a matter of hours. This fast diagnosis has the potential for shortening the patient's hospital stay and preventing the administering of toxic and/or expensive antibiotics of no benefit to the patient.

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