Dive Brief:
- Professors who publish research in "predatory journals," which often charge fees for publication but provide little editing or quality control of work, actually saw positive benefits for their professional career, including higher incomes and promotions, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Derek Pyne, an associate professor of economics with Thompson Rivers University, conducted a study on how such publishing affects professors, finding those who published in prestigious journals were more likely to make less, suggesting the time commitment of making research ready for such publications took away from teaching time.
- Pyne said there was a financial incentive for professors to publish in predatory journals, as professors are rewarded for the quantity of publication, which is easier to boost via such journals.
Dive Insight:
Pyne pinpoints a challenge facing college professors seeking to publish their work. Professors are often encouraged by their institutions to "publish or perish," believing that continuous publication is what will advance their careers. If quantity is currently the way institutions consider whether a professor is qualified for career advancement, professors may see predatory journals as the answer to meeting the volume demands.
However, these journals don't advance the institution's or faculty member's profile, and it may be time for departments to rethink how they approach evaluations for tenure and proomotion in order to fit with changing realities on college campuses.
For example, one university has pledged to use how professors have worked to improve diversity as a facet of how they will be judged for promotions. As the institution came to see the need for more diverse student and staff populations, they adjusted how they approach professor evaluation. Similarly, if institutions feel that consistent publication in sub-standard journals is not beneficial to the school or conducive to how professors can help burnish an institution's reputation, they may re-adjust how professors are judged, providing more incentives for professors to take the time and effort to publish in more prestigious publications.