Does Counting Publications Provide Any Useful Information about Academic Performance

Abstract

At the heart of the Publish or Perish Syndrome is the practice of valuing quantity of publication over quality. This practice is so pervasive that it extends even to the selection process for positions in which one would not expect publica tion counts to be a significant indicator of a person's qualifications to do the job.1 This was brought home to me several years ago when I served on a selection committee for an administrator position. The committee agreed early on that academic should be one of several criteria which the successful candidate ought to meet. Members of the committee then looked at the Curriculum Vitae of potential candidates and screened for credibility simply and solely on the basis of the numbers of the candidates' publications. In addition, the selection committee received input from faculty-at-large which ■■iurged them to reject any candidates whose Curriculum Michael Skolnik is a Vitae did not show a substantial list of publications. professor of higher There was no suggestion at all that quality or impact of education at the Ontario candidates' publications should be a criterion, and no Institute for Studies in discussion in the committee of the content or signifi Education of the cance of candidates' publications. University of Toronto, The practice of judging a professor's worth by Toronto, Ontario, counting his or her publications is common through Canada. out the academy, whether the professor's primary IS

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