{ 2007 02 14 }

Publish or…

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Every now and then, when I start thinking of a habilitation or an “acreditación” i.e. an official and rigourous process for which research in Spain is measured and given a particular score, I think of the publish or perish situation in academia.

First of all, it is already quite difficult when one has invested all his life and efforts in education and building up a CV. I do not have neither a villa on the Riviera nor a boat in the Bahamas. So it is also quite frustrating to see that some parts of the CV have more relevance than others. Based on what? Only one criteria remains here and in the US: publications.

And particularly, Journal Citation Reports (JCR) publications. These are the gist of the matter and hence, academia is devoted to them. Now I am not so sure how efficient / convenient is to push a million scientists towards the golden gates of academic glory but publishing in a selected number of publications.

A different number of alternatives have been proposed. For example, a so-called H-Index, a number based on impact and mathematical criteria of citations. Or a digg-like approach in which impact on the community is measured in a crowdsourcing manner.

To be honest, I am not sure what the best alternative is. But clearly publish or perish is not the best strategy. At least, if you wanna have some quality out there.

Posted by jmgomez on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007, at 9:19 am, and filed under Academic.

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