Assessing Faculty for Universities: Beyond Publishing Metrics

The faculty recruitment system and promotion schemes in universities across the globe have become increasingly dependent on publishing metrics and indices. These indices also largely determine research funding, indirectly driving science in a particular direction that promotes financial incentivization. In this chapter, while acknowledging the importance of metrics as objective and possibly impartial tools, we examine the fallacies of currently utilized publication indices, the scope for improvement in these, and possible alternatives in guiding faculty recruitment and promotions. The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) which endeavors to improve the techniques for research evaluation is discussed. We also discuss the advent of predatory and semi-predatory publishers, paper mills, and other unethical research practices which have been an indirect result of the “publish or perish” policy. In a broader domain, we examine the effects of publication-driven science on scientific progress and how it may result in stagnation and a reduced spirit of discovery.