The Chronicle: Colloquy: Responses

RESPONSES

Should the evaluation of faculty members' publications be changed to put more emphasis on quality and less on quantity? Does the system of scholarly publishing need a radical overhaul?

The most recent responses appear first

"As someone who has published a lot and continues to produce a considerable amount of publications each year, I cannot help but feel that we have reached an absurd limit in our enamourment with 'more and more'..."

: -- Emilia E. Martinez-Brawley, Professor of Social Work and Distinguished Community Service Scholar (posted 6/21, 2:45 p.m., U.S. Eastern time)

"Very briefly put: In the humanities, the quality of scholarship is subjective and difficult to assess at best..."

: -- Steven Totosy, independent scholar, editor http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu (posted 6/16, 10:55 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)

"As an untenured assistant professor (who will be going up for tenure in 2 years with several publications), I am quite turned-off by the whole 'publish or perish' tenure process..."

: -- Rebecca Petersen, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas in San Antonio (posted 6/16, 10:45 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)

"Several things are fascinating about the publication debate..."

: -- Stephen R. Marsh, Adjunct Faculty, Southern Methodist University Dispute Resolution Program (posted 6/15, 12 p.m., U.S. Eastern time)

"Modern technology now permits an easy and inexpensive way for almost all writings by academics to be distributed globally, subject solely to the limitation of a particular language..."

: -- Junius W. Peake, Monfort Distinguished Professor of Finance, Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business, University of Northern Colorado (posted 6/13, 11 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)

"It is never easy to propose solutions to a very complicated situation in the scholarly information exchange..."

: -- Thomas Bacher, Director, Purdue University Press (posted 6/12, 4:30 p.m., U.S. Eastern time)

"The issue of scholarly publishing, having reached a major crossroads, is directly tied to academia's generational divide..."

: -- Donald E. Collins, Director of Curriculum, Presidential Classroom (posted 6/12, 10:25 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)