2008 Woodie Awards
Professors who publish more likely to keep job
By: U- WIRE
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Campus
LOS ANGELES - Working in well over 100 different departments varying from molecular biology to musicology, University of California at Los Angeles professors still have one thing in common: They must publish.
Producing published work is absolutely essential for UCLA professors, said English Professor Matthew Fisher, a junior faculty member who is working on his first article to be published.
Geography Professor Glen MacDonald said publishing is about contributing ideas that could inspire others in the field.
"People that are doing similar research can read it and can build on it ... [or] it might spur someone to do a whole new line of research," he said.
The push to publish, Fisher said, has to do not only with sharing ideas, but with validating them.
"The thinking is that it's only by publishing a book that the larger academic community has the opportunity to offer ... an opinion about [a professor's] work," Fisher said.
Publishing is also necessary for getting tenure, which protects a professor's spot at a university, said Adriana Manago, a psychology graduate student who said she will become a professor this summer.
"It's really critical for advancing in your career to publish," she said.
Fisher said junior faculty are expected to publish at least one book and one or two peer-reviewed articles before they are up for tenure, but he said it is an "implicit understanding," not an official quota.
The amount of work one needs to publish, though, depends on one's department, said Daniel Blumstein, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Blumstein said getting tenure at UCLA is "a really serious process," but once achieved, professors have more freedom in setting their publishing pace.
"[After tenure] some people slow down, some speed up, but you can slow down and not get fired, if you have made substantial contributions," he said.
Producing published work is absolutely essential for UCLA professors, said English Professor Matthew Fisher, a junior faculty member who is working on his first article to be published.
Geography Professor Glen MacDonald said publishing is about contributing ideas that could inspire others in the field.
"People that are doing similar research can read it and can build on it ... [or] it might spur someone to do a whole new line of research," he said.
The push to publish, Fisher said, has to do not only with sharing ideas, but with validating them.
"The thinking is that it's only by publishing a book that the larger academic community has the opportunity to offer ... an opinion about [a professor's] work," Fisher said.
Publishing is also necessary for getting tenure, which protects a professor's spot at a university, said Adriana Manago, a psychology graduate student who said she will become a professor this summer.
"It's really critical for advancing in your career to publish," she said.
Fisher said junior faculty are expected to publish at least one book and one or two peer-reviewed articles before they are up for tenure, but he said it is an "implicit understanding," not an official quota.
The amount of work one needs to publish, though, depends on one's department, said Daniel Blumstein, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Blumstein said getting tenure at UCLA is "a really serious process," but once achieved, professors have more freedom in setting their publishing pace.
"[After tenure] some people slow down, some speed up, but you can slow down and not get fired, if you have made substantial contributions," he said.
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