Abstract
Scientific publishing has become a ruthless game. The infamous aphorism of “publish or perish” describes the pressure academics feel to publish their research extensively and stay relevant within their field. This problem manifests and is tied to a host of other disparities of accessibility within the science research field. Because of this culture, academics may be inspired to cut corners in their research to keep up with the increasing demand of being a scientist. So how can science be restructured from the decades of problems that plague it so that it can achieve equity and address systemic issues? How can one enter the system when it is stricken with socioeconomic barriers and structural racism? Scientists today are saying that science has become too unwieldy, and yet despite seeing the treacherous track of this road, many academics can do nothing but traipse along the same path.
Publish or Perish: The quiet death of scientific inquiry
The term philosophy can be linked back to Ancient Greece as the combination of the words philein and sophia, meaning “lover of knowledge.” Instead of the Lyceum, however, the lovers of knowledge of today now instead present their findings to a myriad of journals, like Nature or PLOS.
Like ancient philosophers, I have also fallen in love with knowledge and the process of building upon my predecessors’ works. But conducting research as an undergraduate student can come with its own costs.
Undergraduate student researchers hold a special place inside of a lab. Compared to their graduate counterparts, undergraduates are rarely doing this work to further their own research inquiries. More often, they are seeking to become a competitive applicant for graduate school or to obtain a recommendation letter from the lab’s principal investigator (PI).
Q*, U2 Science and student researcher, says that undergraduates’ position in a lab can make them susceptible to exploitation from the lead researchers.
“So a lot of students, just to gain some level of experience, start to reach out to labs and are desperate for any kind of experience in lab work at all,” Q told me. “And that allows for some very exploitable undergraduates because they are not looking for pay […] they’re just looking for some level of experience.”
Q believes that “publish or perish” culture can distill students’ passion for scientific research early on. The lack of research opportunities available for undergraduates pushes them to get involved not out of genuine interest, but to become more marketable to future recruiters.
“Many undergrads are just forced into these situations where they are working on a project that they have no interest in, where their only goal is to get a publication […] before they can apply for grad school, ” Q said.
The pressure to publish makes it difficult for academics to balance their personal life with their work. For Q, this endless chase of achievement often feels pointless.
“It’s not even like having a publication really guarantees you anything given how competitive academia is and how much importance is placed on grades […] even if you’re an excellent researcher, you might get cut off for having a lower GPA,” Q said. “In this context, why research a subject that you want [or] is useful if there’s no return on your time investment?”