What is Publish or Perish?

Tenured professor positions in the academic world are highly competitive and very much sought after. Receiving tenure as a professor means job security and a stable income in the increasingly tight employment field in academia. In order to obtain and maintain this position, academics must keep up with a demanding list of duties and expectations, including publishing.

Reasons

In order to keep up with the notoriously competitive employment environment of the academic world, college professors who are seeking to obtain the rank and stability that tenureship provides must maintain a demanding schedule of publishing papers. Having a significant publishing record of books, articles in peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly publications raises the esteem of the academic and makes him or her more worth of receiving tenure in the eyes of fellow academics and academic institutions. Tenured professors also feel this same pressure to continuously publish in order to move up the ladder in rank - from tenured associate professor to full professorship, for example.

Definition

Those who do not or are not able to keep up with their institution's demands for publishing expectations will either not receive tenure or not be promoted to higher, more coveted ranks in the university faculty. This is "publish or perish." As a result of this demand to publish, some academics find themselves pressured to publish articles that are of lesser quality than they may truly find acceptable or even publish articles on subject matters in which they are not experts. The publish or perish phenomenon is seen throughout the entire scope of academia, from social sciences and the humanities to natural sciences, business and even the arts fields.

History

The term "publish or perish" was first seen in 1932 in a book about Archibald Cary Coolidge, written by Harold Jefferson Coolidge and Robert Howard Lord. However, in this book the phrase was not in the academic context that we recognize widely today. Some believe the academic context of "publish or perish" which we are familiar with now was coined by Columbia University geneticist Kimball C. Atwood during a casual conversation sometime in the mid-20th century. However, this was merely an anecdotal reference and, ironically, not published, so the reference is not proven. Author Logan Wilson uses the term "publish or perish" in his 1942 book "The Academic Man: A Study in the Sociology of a Profession."

Viewpoints

As with most things, there are arguments for and against the publish or perish phenomenon. As an advantage, keeping tenured professors pressured to research and publish papers steadily can keep them current in their field and not become lazy or apathetic in the security of their position. However, the same pressure can also distract professors from the importance of their quality of teaching in the classroom as their focus is now primarily placed on their outside-classroom academic endeavors. Many see the publish or perish phenomenon in academia as a boon to university institutions as they are able to boast of their faculty's prolific researching and writing credentials. However, it is also viewed by many - a great number of academics themselves - as being detrimental to the overall state of teaching and education offered to the students.