16: Publish, Don't Perish: A Program to Help Scholars Flourish

Abstract

Faculty often believe that if they do notpublish, they willperish. Faculty developers can respond to this need by helpingfaculty increase their scholarly productivity. Research shows thatfaculty are more productive ifthey writefor [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] minutes dairy, organize their writingaroundkey sentences, andgetextensive.feedback on drafts. This article evaluates a program hosted on two campuses that aimed at supporting 115faculty achieve these goals. Throughout the program, participants kept records oftimethey spent writing and the number ofpages they wrote and at the endofthe program, they were surveyed. These data reveal that if participants continued towrite and revise prose at the rate they did during the program, they wouldproduce 75polishedpages peryear. According to survey results, 83% ofparticipants would participate in the program again, and 95% would recommend it to their colleagues. INTRoDucnoNT h is essay evaluates the extent to which "Publish, Don't Perish," a program designed to help faculty flourish as writers, enabled participants to achieve the following three program goals: 1) Improve time management by developing the discipline to write daily for at least 15-30 minutes; 2) improve writing by learning to organize each paragraph, section, and paper around a key sentence; and 3) improve writing by seeking feedback within a community of scholars. These outcomes were measured by

Publish & Flourish: Helping Scholars Become Better, More Prolific Writers

“…The current study examines one such writing program, Publish & Flourish, which aims to help scholars become better, more productive writers. The study echoes and extends the findings of three comparison studies: McGrail et al (), Boice () and Gray and Birch (). The first comparison study was a meta‐analysis of three types of writing programs, including writing workshops, support groups, and coaches (McGrail et al, ).…”

“…More than 30 years ago, Boice () discussed the problem in the well‐known article, “Why Academicians Don't Write.” According to Boice, there are many reasons including lack of time, distractions, writing blocks, and the inherent difficulty of writing (Boice, ). Educational developers can continue to address these issues by hosting writing programs that help scholars improve their writing and increase their productivity (Boice, ; Gray & Birch, ; McGrail, Rickard, & Jones, ).…”

“…The third comparison study was of an earlier version of Publish & Flourish (Gray & Birch, ). The earlier version was designed to build on the successes and address some of the limitations of Boice ().…”

“…Like Boice (), the program encouraged scholars to write daily. Unlike Boice, Gray and Birch () was designed for larger numbers ( N = 115) of more productive scholars who were held accountable without office visits from the researchers. During this first version of the program, participants wrote an average of two days a week and produced an extrapolated 75 pages per year of new prose—or 150 pages of new or revised prose if each page of prose was also counted as revised.…”

Faculty research productivity in six Arab countries

“…The potential for a relationship between research productivity and such variables may lie in institutional processes, such as the socialisation of scholars into a research culture (Williamson and Cable 2003) and institutional support at all levels. Overall, the old adage ''publish or perish'' (Gray and Birch 2000) continues to accentuate the importance of research productivity to academic careers and serves as a useful barometer of a programme's research quality and a factor for measuring excellence (Rachal et al 2008). …”