There is a peculiar pressure that hangs over academia —

not visible in classrooms,

not felt by students,

not acknowledged in policy speeches.

It is the quiet, constant, choking pressure to publish.

Not to discover.

Not to think.

Not to solve.

Not to transform.

But to produce papers

for journals nobody reads,

in formats nobody understands,

to satisfy committees nobody respects,

to chase metrics nobody believes in.

This is the underbelly of academic scholarship:

the publish-or-perish trap —

a treadmill disguised as a triumph.

________________________________________

Scene 1: The Midnight Researcher

A young assistant professor sits at her dining table at 1:45 AM.

Laptop open.

Eyes burning.

Tea cold.

She is writing not because she is inspired —

but because the promotion guidelines require

“Minimum 8 Scopus-indexed publications in 4 years.”

She whispers,

“I don’t even know who reads these papers.”

And the truth is:

nobody does.

Except maybe the editor,

the reviewer,

and the promotion committee.

This is research by compulsion —

not curiosity.

________________________________________

Scene 2: The Senior Professor’s Confession

At a national conference in Jaipur,

a senior professor leans over to a colleague and mutters,

“My H-index went up this year.

My teaching quality went down.

Guess which one got appreciated?”

They both smile in that sad, knowing way

only academia understands.

Because academia measures output,

not impact.

________________________________________

Scene 3: The Whiteboard Moment — The Irony

A faculty member writes on the board:

Real Problems

– Agriculture

– Climate

– Health

– Inequality

– Education

– Mental Health

– AI Ethics

Published Papers

– Yet another model

– Yet another comparison

– Yet another analysis

– Yet another statistical trick

He turns to his students and says quietly,

“Important things are difficult to publish.

Publishable things are rarely important.”

The class falls silent.

The truth lands heavy.

________________________________________

Scene 4: The Global Parallel — Chicago, 5 PM

A professor from the University of Chicago says to her friend:

“I spent six years writing papers nobody cited.

But my dean promoted me.”

Her friend from Cambridge replies,

“I taught 2,000 students,

mentored 40,

and built a new course…

but my promotion got delayed.”

Both sip wine.

Both look disappointed.

Both know the system is upside-down.

________________________________________

Why Does the Publish-or-Perish Trap Exist?

1. Journals Became Gatekeepers of Careers

Publications are the currency.

Quality of teaching is the footnote.

Who gets promoted?

The one with more citations —

not more impact.

2. Administration Loves Numbers

Papers are countable.

Learning is not.

So institutions chase metrics

because metrics look good in brochures.

3. Scholars Chase Safety, Not Discovery

True research is risky.

Safe research gets published.

So the system rewards safety

and punishes originality.

4. Journals Dictate Identity

Teachers write for reviewers,

not for students.

Research becomes ritual,

not relevance.

5. The Incentive System Is Broken

If research determines promotions,

people will produce research.

Not necessarily knowledge.

________________________________________

Scene 5: The PDF Nobody Will Open

A professor uploads his 15-page paper to an international journal’s repository.

The system shows:

Downloads: 0

Reads: 0

Citations: 0

He smiles ironically and tells his colleague,

“Still counts for API score.”

His colleague nods,

“That’s all that matters.”

They walk away —

two brilliant minds trapped in a system that asks them to perform,

not think.

________________________________________

The Emotional Underbelly

The publish-or-perish trap doesn’t kill curiosity.

It suffocates it.

Quietly.

Systematically.

Elegantly.

Teachers who once loved books

start fearing deadlines.

Researchers who once loved ideas

start resenting manuscripts.

Young scholars who once dreamed of discovery

start dreaming of “acceptance emails.”

And somewhere in this endless cycle of formatting, revising, resubmitting,

the purpose of knowledge —

to understand the world —

gets replaced by the purpose of publishing —

to survive in the world.

________________________________________

Scene 6: A Whisper at a Conference Dinner

A professor from Melbourne tells her colleague from Delhi:

“Sometimes I feel academic publishing is a pyramid scheme.”

The Delhi colleague replies,

“It is.

Only the reviewers are unpaid.”

They laugh —

the kind of laughter used to hide collective exhaustion.

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The Harsh Truth

Academics today are not drowning in knowledge.

They are drowning in PDFs.

Research is not dead.

It is diluted.

Curiosity is not gone.

It is redirected.

Scholarship is not failing.

It is suffocating under paperwork.

The tragedy is not that teachers publish.

The tragedy is that they publish instead of teaching,

instead of innovating,

instead of thinking deeply,

instead of solving real problems.

The system forces temporary brilliance

in exchange for permanent pressure.

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Underbelly Essence

The publish-or-perish trap was meant to protect scholarship.

It ended up producing:

• papers without readers,

• research without relevance,

• citations without impact,

• careers without inspiration.

It is not learning.

It is survival.

A ritual.

A treadmill.

A quiet graveyard of ideas

that could have changed the world

if only the system had let them breathe.