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Fekula and Hornyak
of qualit y research being published thr ough abundant time and r esources is n ot onl y hi gher, but has a
greater probability of acceptance into top-tier journals. We also expect that the best researchers would be
hired by the top institutions, which can afford to offer greater compensation.
In sum, it is no surprise t hat top schoo ls with abund ant resources have prod uctive faculty who have the
time, resources, and capabilit y t o generate research that can be published in top-tier journals. The
evidence in this study and others (Fekula & Hornyak, 2007) bears this out. So, the real issue of concern is
not what the top schools are doing, but what th e lower-ranked schools are cap able of doing in the
publishing realm.
It is not only the rec ent years that have seen a change in faculty performance expectations. Historically,
faculty members at small institutions have expressed concern about increased publication expectations,
which impact promotion, tenure, and ultimately retention (Buzza, 1989). In more recent years, faculty
members have identified an increa se in faculty productivi ty amidst dim inishing financial resources
(Elmes-Crahall, 1992). Reductions in financial r esources and university -supported publication outlets
have been ch aracterized as a “near crisis” in pu blishing (Alonso, Davidson, Unsworth & W ithey, 2003).
Although some suggest that these phenom ena are li mited to the traditional resear ch scho ols, a major
collegiate report cites increasing demands for research productivity that have had a ripple effect impacting
even the trad itional teaching institutions wher e publication has taken on increased i mportance over t he
past 10 years (Modern Language Association, 2007).
No one would argue that scholarship and research are not good things (Nelson, 2004), but there are tradeoffs
to be m ade. Some evidence suggests that quant ity is supplanting qualit y. In court, a professor won
her tenure decision case because the school did not specify in advance that a number of publications were
required for tenure. She argued that ha d the criteria been quantified, she could have published numerous
articles from her work instead of just the one top-tier publication that she had managed to achieve (Euben,
2002). When viewed as a numbers game, excessive demands reduce publications to a highly sought-after
commodity (Burgan, 2003) and the process of research to the status of a competition (Nelson, 2004). As
one professor puts it:
With my teaching load, if I 'm going t o do resear ch and publis h, it' s going to happen in the
summer. Do you think I' m going to r ead widely and see what strikes me? Of course not! I'm
going to find the first dozen or so articles and boo ks and write my journal article from them...for
good or for bad. Is that anti-intellectual? Ther e's n othing i ntellectual about this process. The
pressure for increased publication has nothi ng to do with increasing hum an knowledge; it' s
strictly about some weird academic commerce that doesn't even make economic sense! (S haviro,
2004, para. 4)
As indicated in the Modern Language Association (MLA) report, publication should not be the reason for
scholarship; scholarship should be t he reason for publication (Withey , 2007). In addition to the potential
impact upon scholarship, the ever-increasing dem ands for both teaching and publication (Howard, 2006)
can distill faculty efforts in all areas. One student concludes that Harvard has much to learn about
teaching because tenured professors de vote themselves to intensive resear ch (Metrailler, n.d.). Given
Harvard’s resources, we would expec t the prob lem to be com pounded at universities with fewer
resources. In the face of excessive demands, new f aculty members might even question whether getting
tenure is worth the trou ble it takes (Burgan, 20 03), especially when other performance criteria c an
misdirect faculty behavior. One professor laments the fact that she spent any time at all doing things other
than publishi ng. E ven aft er buildi ng a highl y acclai med university progra m, she found herself job
searching. “Like countless other assistant professors be fore me, I walked right into the s ervice trap ”
(Murphy, 2007, para. 23).
ASBBS E-Journal, Volume 4, No.1, 2008
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