Most professors rarely write for publication. Indeed, I was startled to learn recently that only 27 percent or so of this nation’s 40,000 higher education faculty members have ever published a peer-reviewed article. Fewer than 2 in 5 academics will ever publish a book. Nonetheless, as a general proposition, scholarly success, respect and standing require publication, at least at this country’s leading research institutions and most prestigious colleges. None of this is to say that one must write for publication to be an effective professor. Such would be far from the truth. It is simply to place into broader perspective the widely repeated mantra that one must “publish or perish.” That axiom really needs to be understood in terms of two questions: what sort of academic institution is in question and how one defines the professorial role and what constitutes active scholarly inquiry.
