By August I will have finished all the fieldwork and data collection for my PhD, a frankly huge moment that at points felt like it would never happen. But as I finish this part of the journey, moving into the 4th year of my PhD and becoming an upper-year PhD candidate I can’t help but think about those next steps after I finish. As I’m in academia one of the things that comes with that is scientific publications, more specifically my name on publications, as this is one of the main ways we are measured when it comes to securing jobs and positions in the future.
I consider myself lucky that after I completed my master’s degree the opportunity arose to work on a short communication for publication with a few colleagues. A year or so after I completed my MSc in early 2020, this was published with me as a co-first author (still one of my proudest moments!). Since then, I have been involved with a further two publications. Although to me this feels like a great achievement the reality is that now, due to the unreal and often unachievable expectations put on students early in their academic careers to allow them to be considered for graduate school, many undergraduates already have their name on one or more publications. Making my 3 halfway through my PhD look very small….
For me, the pressure to publish has always been there at the back of my mind. But with working full time before my PhD started, then moving to a new country to start my PhD, then planning and conducting over 12 months of fieldwork collectively, the time that I felt I could dedicate towards putting together a publication has been minimal. Meaning I have fallen off the publishing horse and now I’m struggling to get back on. As I am now reaching a key stage in my PhD when in another 2-3 years I will be looking and applying for jobs I am beginning to feel the pressure to publish on full blast, as even though I’m still not sure if I want to remain in academia, my ability to publish and get my name out there is important.
I hate this idea of ‘publish or perish’. The famous phrase that we all know within academia. Ultimately I feel like the pressure behind this phrase does more damage than good for everyone at every stage of their journey. But equally, I know how publishing is critical within academia as a whole, but also my field. But how do I get out of this publishing rut and get my name on scientific articles that I’m proud of? It’s hard, especially when there’s a time pressure.
A little side note. Here I’ve been talking about scientific publications, but recently I’ve been exploring other more creative writing mediums, like short stories or poetry (or even blogs like this through substack), all of which have my name on them. So, what if I get to the point where I want to publish one of these? Would they be viewed in the same way? Sadly, within academia no. But personally, and in a more public setting, I think they would. Maybe not in exactly the same way, but they would still be a big achievement for me.
I would love to hear people’s thoughts on all of this. Have you fallen victim to the publish-or-perish mindset? Are you in a publication rut? Or, are you in academia but published some on the more creative side? If so I would love to see/hear about it so please let me know!
See ya later,
Coral