Publication or innovation? Goal displacement and lessons from the publish-or-perish culture

Drawing on a survey of academic economists in the Netherlands, Harry van Dalen¸ explores how publish or perish culture is perceived and enacted within academia. Arguing that the current arrangement of the academy along lines that promote outputs (publications) displaces both the goal of more intrinsically motivated forms of scientific innovation and those who pursue them, he argues for a form of academic management more focused on inputs and the promotion of academics with a ‘taste for ideas’, rather than publications.