Publishing as Prostitution? Choosing Between One�s Own Ideas and Academic Failure

Bruno Frey

No 117, IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: Survival in academia depends on publications in refereed journals. Authors only get their papers accepted if they intellectually prostitute themselves by slavishly following the demands made by anonymous referees without property rights on the journals they advise. Intellectual prostitution is neither beneficial to suppliers nor consumers. But it is avoidable. The editor (with property rights on the journal) should make the basic decision of whether a paper is worth publishing or not. The referees only give suggestions on how to improve the paper. The author may disregard this advice. This reduces intellectual prostitution and produces more original publications.

Keywords: academic market; publications; economics of economics; intellectual prostitution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe, nep-mic and nep-pke
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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