Publish or perish? The increasing importance of publications for prospective economics professors in Austria, Germany and Switzerland

Graber, M., Launov, A. and Wälde, K. (2008) Publish or perish? The increasing importance of publications for prospective economics professors in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. German Economic Review, 9(4), pp. 457-472. (doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00449.x)

Abstract

Tenure decisions depend, among other factors, on a candidate�s career age and publication record. We measure publications in units of both Top 5 journals and of the European Economic Review (EER), associating publication output with journals indexed in EconLit. We find that the average age of a professor in the year of his/her first appointment is 38, i.e. approximately 8 years after completing the PhD. Between 1970 and 2006, the average publication record at the time of the first appointment is equivalent to 1.5 standardized Top 5 articles (one co-author, 20 pages) or 2.3 standardized EER articles. Publication records vary across sub fields and improve over time. We predict that someone running for a tenured job after 2011 should (average of all fields) aim at an average equivalent of 4 standardized Top 5 articles or 6 standardized EER articles.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Academic labour market, tenure, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: UNSPECIFIED
• Authors: Graber, M., Launov, A., and Wälde, K.
• Subjects: L Education > LF Individual institutions (Europe); L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: German Economic Review
• Publisher: Blackwell
• ISSN: 1468-0475
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2008 Blackwell
• First Published: First published in German Economic Review 9(4):457-472
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher