The 'publish or perish'-pressure - beneficial
to academic research?
Benjamin Planque
[email protected]
Research, communication, evaluation
Research
Funding
Promotion
Evaluation
Publication
Communication
to peers
Citation
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
2 universities
Publication rate
Citation rate
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Fish will disappear by 2048!
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
More equations = less citations
After Fawcett and Higginson 2012- PNAS
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Institutional response
• IMR publishing strategy 2012
• Key recommendations:
– Increase average number of
publications/staff/year
– Publish more in peer-reviewed journals
• 20 specific recommendations
– Zero on research quality
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Become author and editor
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
PhD students
•
•
•
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Pressure to publish is highest
Capacity to resist is lowest
‘Publish or perish’ is mentally integrated
PhD objectives:
– Primary: publish three papers
– Secondary: learn how to conduct research
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Summary
• Publication & citation rates are used for the
assessment and management of research
• Researchers and students adapt to publication and
citation incentives,
• Institutes also adapt to publication and citation
incentives,
• Publishers adapt to this new situation
• None of these adaptations have a focus on
research quality
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Who am I going to be?
• Marine biologist (zooplankton and fish)
• Climate and fishing effects on marine
populations
• Numerical ecology
• Spatial ecology
• Food-web modeling
• Fish stock Assessments
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
High Impact High Fraud
After Fang et al. 2012 - PNAS
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?
Publish or perish – beneficial to academic research?