Dive Brief:
- Online academic paper-sharing platform Academia.edu came under fire last week after an email asked whether a faculty member would consider paying to have his papers considered for recommendation by website editors, which would come with a boost in viewership.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Scott F. Johnson, an assistant professor of classics and letters at the University of Oklahoma, posted a screenshot of the email on Twitter asking if the company had been hacked.
- While many responded to the tweet, arguing the platform would lose credibility should such a proposal be enacted, Academia.edu CEO Richard Price said it was still just a proposal, but the company had not ruled it out yet.
Dive Insight:
Faculty members being considered for tenure or promotion are pressured to show examples of their work that has made a significant contribution to the field. The number of citations on their papers is one measure of this contribution. Academia.edu boasts on its landing page that a recent study found papers uploaded to the social network receive a 73% boost in citations over five years. Papers that are recommended by editors get seen by more people than regular uploads. The value proposition to be able to pay for greater visibility will be clear to some faculty, even though others would never consider it because of the ethical optics.
Should the company enact such a proposal, administrators must consider its effect on their own faculty, especially in tenure and promotion cases. Academia.edu claims nearly 32 million users.