INDUSTRY & RESEARCH campusreview. com. au
Publishing and perishing
Change the research culture by rewarding scientists for doing things the right way, not for rushing work into prized journals.
Virginia Barbour interviewed by James Wells
Something must be done to change science’ s‘ publish or perish’ culture, the chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics says.
The pressure in academia to rush research into print to advance or sustain one’ s career is once again in the spotlight after high-profile scientist Dr Anna Ahimastos admitted to fabricating research in two major journals.
Publication Ethics Committee chair Virginia Barbour, who is also former chief editor of medical journal PLOS Medicine, says she is not surprised the media spotlight has shone once again on scientific fabrication.
She says because researchers’ worth is measured through what they publish – and because of the extreme competition for grants – there is substantial pressure to get research to print. Unfortunately, Barbour says, this leads to corners being cut.
Here, Barbour speaks with Campus Review about why researchers are taking shortcuts, and the need for a recognised reward system.
CR: Virginia, why is publish-or-perish culture once again in the spotlight?
VB: Well, there’ s been a case recently where a paper had to be retracted after a group basically said they had fabricated the data.
This has raised the issue again of what makes papers get retracted and the need for a mechanism for correcting the record.
But, more interestingly, it shines a light on the issues that underlie retractions and what leads academics potentially to have to fabricate their data, and I think there’ s a much bigger story to be told than just one individual case.
Why do these retractions and fabrications occur? There are a number of different reasons, but the main thing is that retractions are the way of correcting scientific record. Right now, they’ re the most reliable way to do it that we have because they’ re linked to the original paper, and make it clear to anyone reading it that you have to read the paper with extreme caution.
Why is this happening? I think there are multiple things contributing to it. The most important one, we believe, is this culture of ' publish or perish '. It’ s a phrase that’ s
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