Dear Mohamed,

Yes, I think there is a big problem with the "publish or perish" culture, especially for academics in non-English speaking countries. An unbalanced focus on such metrics can lead to cynical manipulation which does not further the interests of academic disciplines or academia as a whole. The research market feels like it is simply too large and too competitive. However, having worked in a "publish or perish" job for over 4 years really changed me in a positive way!

I am not sure exactly the thrust of your question. There are several questions you could be asking, for example:

• Why is the system the way it is?
• How can non-English speaking academics survive?
• How could the system be improved, i.e. what else should be measured or encouraged in the development of academics?
• In view of this, how should institutions in non-English speaking countries adjust their approach towards developing their academics?

What do you think of "publish or perish"?

You can also refer to the following RG link:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/As_Researchers_or_Academicians_Do_You_Agreed_Publish_or_Perish

What are the outputs of research? Final research reports, Conference papers, Journal papers, Masters and PhD candidates passed, with their thesis-books. 

That's only happened in public universities but not a requirement for private universities or colleges - teaching still the bread & butter in certain countries. Depends ...  

Dear Mohamed,

Yes, I think there is a big problem with the "publish or perish" culture, especially for academics in non-English speaking countries. An unbalanced focus on such metrics can lead to cynical manipulation which does not further the interests of academic disciplines or academia as a whole. The research market feels like it is simply too large and too competitive. However, having worked in a "publish or perish" job for over 4 years really changed me in a positive way!

I am not sure exactly the thrust of your question. There are several questions you could be asking, for example:

• Why is the system the way it is?
• How can non-English speaking academics survive?
• How could the system be improved, i.e. what else should be measured or encouraged in the development of academics?
• In view of this, how should institutions in non-English speaking countries adjust their approach towards developing their academics?

The drive for the propagation of the 'publish or perish' agenda by universities has sparked a lot of foul intentions on research on the part of many faculty members. Of course, it is true that one has to publish his/her findings for others to use for the betterment of societies rather than they resting helplessly on the tables and shelves in educational institutions. Yet, that does not mean that research should be driven by promotional intentions. This mentality kills QUALITY, RELEVANCE, and RIGOR that should ideally be the drivers for research.

A lecturer who is due for promotion to the next rank forcefully create and publish 'irrelevant' research papers that do not fill any particular void in the puzzle of the research area and/or take the wheels that have already been taken by other researchers many years ago. Should that be the aim of research? Is it not to carefully, and tactfully put forward NEW ways of remedying the problems of mankind? This REAL DRIVE for research is sometimes a MILESTONE to the very caveats of issues to bring out very useful findings to improve the life of humans.

Yet, the incessant drive to survive as a university staff push our lecturers with good and clear intentions to drink the cup with the devil by fabricating data and putting falsehood to blind the global readership audience.

Research is GOOD, A BREAKTHROUGH for societies but must be pursued with dignity and clean motives and not as a ladder to reach promotional titles.

Dickson Adom

In a competitive  world like today you will either publish or perish.

This is an important question.   In addition to the helpful answers already given, there is a bit more to add.

A researcher who publishes results (even if only one result) is helpful to everyone.   The number of results published is not important.   Rather, it is the quality and significance of a published result that has an impact.   In mathematics, for example, Euclid's Elements (one of the few known works by Euclid) has established Euclid as an important geometer.

Focusing on the number of publications by a researcher makes little sense.   There are many examples of researchers who were prolific but are only remembered for one of their published works.   For example, David Hume is most remembered for his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–1740), started when Hume was 23:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/

For another RG thread related to this thread, see

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_or_perish_Is_it_useful_to_publish_in_a_journal_without_an_impact_factor

For more about the publish or perish relative to the visibility issue, see

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277896357_Does_'get_visible_or_vanish'_herald_the_end_of_'publish_or_perish'

Article Does ‘get visible or vanish’ herald the end of ‘publish or perish’?

Dear sir

I think it Good step, Why? Becuase people live in this country try to develop their academics path by publishing high-quality papers in top journals and this reflects, as a result, Reputation of the researcher and the ranking of university.

Best Regards

Dear Mohamed Benmerikhi, 

Thanks a lot for this important question. Thanks so much for all colleagues and friends for their contrbutions.  

The English language is the first in the world. There are many reasons for this. Having a problem of writing and publishing in English is a bad sign on the educational system which can have explanations on the political choices. In my opinion, I think that each country: the geographical location, its history, its external relations with the other countries represent the elements of political choice. All this represents a set of problems for the researcher who seeks to publish in English.

But, with globalization everyone will run to acquire recognized skills in the English language unless there are other reasons. What is currently observable in our world. This race is defined by balances of forces in our world. If this balance changes, certainly the race will change may be to acquire skills in other languages at the expense of English. As a result, researchers will publish with another language (not English) to be recognized.

With my best wishes.

Adel OUESLATI

Greetings. I think it had been mentioned before. There are public and private institutions that require at least two publications a year. In the case of the University where I work, to obtain the last rung of the race it is necessary to have 4 publications, in at least one of them only 1 author. It follows that you have to publish or die.

But there is another approach, the own. You communicate or not. Public or not. I think of those who are at the tip of the Maslow Pyramid, those who want well for their own sake either because they like what they do or because they are behind a final goal not yet achieved but are taking steps to achieve it. I think in those cases you have to publish.

All this is so. If you can not publish in prestigious magazines, then you are doomed to death as a scientist.

How is it possible that reactions are coming so very slowly. In the meantime many good researchers disappeared. I have followed the problem in Ghent, it is a universal problem. Also the small faculties as Slavic languages are under fire and because there is no solution to find, they try to remove some. Each language represent a culture and the diversity of cultures we must keep alive.

We should replace it by

flourish and publish

or

Publish and be rich.

Anyhow, the term perish should disapear.

Flourish and publish

Agree with the views expressed above.

The phrase 'Publish or Perish' makes an intimidating impression on researchers from non-English speaking academic communities.

Conceptually, the need to publish quality research has to be highlighted since it helps in the professional development of academic researchers. The concept of 'Perish' works to the disadvantage of non-English speaking academicians. At the same time, there is possibility to misuse publishing platforms impacting quality of research, especially in the emerging economies. 

There is a need to establish a fine balance between 'Publish' and 'Perish' giving appropriate training to aspiring researchers.

As stated by Rohen Yumnan in an earlier response, 'Publish and Flourish' can be an appropriate approach.

The phrase “Publish or perish” initially coined by Coolidge in 1932 is now becoming a harsh reality. The emphasis on publishing has decreased the value of the resulting scholarship as scholar must spend time scrambling to publish whatever they can manage, rather than spend time developing significant research agenda. The pressure to publish-or-perish also detracts from the time and effort professors can devote to teaching undergraduate and post-graduates. The rewards for exceptional teaching rarely match the rewards for exceptional research, which encourages faculty to favor the latter whenever they conflict. Many universities do not focus on teaching ability when they hire new faculty and simply look at the publications list. This single-minded focus on the professor-as-researcher may cause faculty to neglect or be unable to perform some other responsibilities.

"Publish or perish" is a phrase coined to describe the pressure in academia to rapidly and continually publish academic work to sustain or further one's career.

Frequent publication is one of the few methods at scholars' disposal to demonstrate academic talent. Successful publications bring attention to scholars and their sponsoring institutions, which can facilitate continued funding and an individual's progress through a chosen field. 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 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, which is the average number of citations to articles published in a particular journal.

I think I have published significantly and would want to stop for a while. The injunction "or perish" is a serious threat to quality research, which becomes surrogated by quantity. This drive has also seen the rise of "predatory journals" whose turnaround is unbelievably as short as two weeks. I bet peer review in such mega-journals could be non-existent. In addition, self-plagiarism has become so commonplace to the extent that when one sees a certain "new publication" from a certain known researcher, one is not amazed at the similarities in discourse, procedures and findings.

I attach one recent revealing article about the scourge fomented and driven by the injunction "or perish."

This statement is ruthless. This is used as a stick in some organization. For promotion, for increments etc.. one needs to publish. However, the salary will be given may be with out a hike, therefore " perish" does not hold good. A person who is not good at publishing may be very active in some other kind of academic endeavor , in such cases this statement will loose meaning.

In most of the organisation whether you published in a internationally recognised journal or a local jounrnal, that carries same marks/points to measure your performance. So, only number is what is counted now a days. I can tell here that 'anything' can be published if you just complete necessary formalities.Thus, in order to be safe from the term 'publish or perish', we are now in the era or publish anything so that you do not want to perish. Thus, the question of quality publication still persists.

Dear friends

I think that publish or perish is an important concern for young researchers since seniors supervising thesis and projects can "publish" through their students. In other terms, seniors publish and perish by publishing any thing in different topics. This is true especially in developing countries.

Publish and perish

Bachir

Publish or Perish? Yes. Embrace It.

That academic mantra doesn’t have to be a threat, or a gloomy mandate to live or die under...

If you are feeling low about your job, write something and send it out to be published...

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Publish-or-Perish-Yes/235319

Recommended dear dr. Dickson Adom

Regards

In last couple of years this research question was posted so many times. It speaks about the relevance of question itself. I will bring some of those research questions with good answers and fine resources.

Dear @Kelvin has written : 

"Academia vs Social Media. High impact factor (IF) vs lower IF or non-indexed publications.  

Better to present your results in a low IF open access journal than a higher IF which is not available to all?

Better to publish anywhere than not publishing at all?

Better having one good publication than ten anywhere?

Better to publish in an average IF Journal than in a non-indexed one that has greater circulation?

How to combine the best of two worlds? 

What are the factors that you take into account to decide?"

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_or_perish_strategy

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_or_perish_culture

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_or_Perish_quality_vs_quantity

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_or_perish_Is_it_useful_to_publish_in_a_journal_without_an_impact_factor/1

Is there any proof that this policy has uplifted standard of research. No!

Its more important for carrier advancement of teachers in many institutes and helps in ranking

Dear@Martina has had very fine research question and rich discussion! 

Publish in English or perish? Do you think this is true?

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Publish_in_English_or_perish_Do_you_think_this_is_true

This question is also relevant to English-speaking universities (Canada) where a substantial proportion of academic staff is non- English speaking (their native language is not English). Many find it hard to publish in the so-called top-line journals, others can't get funding from federal programs partly due to language problems.

There are alternatives such as writing articles on Wikipedia, instead of writing articles in journals.

Currently, scientists are increasingly looking towards industry for obtaining the financial resources to fund their scientific projects. Since the goal of industry is to generate profit, they impose safeguarding exclusivity, or claiming intellectual property rights by means of patents. In this case the expression “patent or perish” is more appropriate.

Interesting point Mr Florian.

Ljubomir Jacić ; i agree with you , and good input by Florian Industry and academia collaborations are very important for sustainability of R&D which will obviously help both. 

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

The old university attitude of 'publish or perish' has changed. Students and academics are realising that institutions such as Imperial College are also wealth-generators. It is very satisfying to be in a university where you have the freedom to innovate and yet know that there is a path to translate your work into an industry.

                                                               ----  Chris Toumazou 

'Publish or perish' a message to encourage academics and other professionals in a bid to advance knowledge.

Theories we enjoy today were the research outcome and efforts of our forefathers. If we fail to publish, what becomes of knowledge in future.    

Publish or perish: the moral imperative of journals!

If we as a society fail to publish all competent research, we have committed irreparable world-scale malpractice. The moral imperative of “publish or perish” is now broad and urgent with the advent of easy and prompt publication. If we fail to publish data, the data perish; with data’s demise, people (whose clinicians should have had the advantage of knowledge in the literature) suffer and perish, along with the public investment we have made as taxpayers, donors to, participants in and fundraisers for research. Currently configured journals will perish as well, because we will have failed as guarantors of public access to the knowledge the public has earned with their tax dollars and charitable donations...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4902697/

What criterion would one apply to select another language than English?

The most spoken and written language? Then we should all start learning Chinese!

Good luck folks! You might also try with Latin ;-)

No doubt we perish than publish being in developing countries.