A study of 25 years of publication outputs in the German academic profession

Abstract

In the weak evaluation state of Germany, full professors are involved in the traditional social governance partnership between the state, and the self-governing higher education institutions (HEI) and disciplinary associations. Literature suggests that formal and informal governance could trigger changes in academics’ publication behavior by valorizing certain publication outputs. In the article, secondary data from three surveys (1992, 2007 and 2018) is used for a multi-level study of the evolution of academics’ publication behavior. We find a trend toward the “model” of natural science publication behavior across all disciplines. On the organizational level, we observe that a strong HEI research performance orientation is positively correlated with journal articles, peer-reviewed publications, and co-publications with international co-authors. HEI performance-based funding is only positively correlated with the share of peer-reviewed publications. At the level of individual disciplines, humanities and social sciences scholars adapt to the peer-reviewed journal publication paradigm of the natural sciences at the expense of book publications. Considering how the academic profession is organized around reputation and status, it seems plausible that the academic profession and its institutional oligarchy are key contexts for the slow but steady change of academics’ publication behavior. The trend of changing academics’ publication behavior is partly related to HEI valorization of performance and (to a lesser extent) to HEI performance based-funding schemes, which are set by the strong academic profession in the weak evaluation state of Germany.

Forty and over the academic hill? Biological and academic age and the race for tenure

“…For one, universities and extra-university research institutes are known for their rich history and for being adamant about their scholars' scientific freedom. In addition, academia attracts international students and produces excellent scholars and research output, which are globally recognized (Backes-Gallner/Schlinghoff 2010;Scott 2005;Gewinner 2020;Schneijderberg et al 2022). Nevertheless, contrary to this positive perspective on academia, the academic labor market in Germany is repeatedly criticized for its insecure working conditions and precarious career paths, which can especially, but not exclusively, negatively affect early careers (Bahr et al 2022;Dirnagl 2022).…”

Forty and over the academic hill? Biological and academic age and the race for tenure

“…For one, universities and extra-university research institutes are known for their rich history and for being adamant about their scholars' scientific freedom. In addition, academia attracts international students and produces excellent scholars and research outputs, which are globally recognized (Backes-Gallner/Schlinghoff 2010; Scott 2005;Gewinner 2020;Schneijderberg et al 2022). Nevertheless, contrary to this positive perspective on academia, the academic labor market in Germany is repeatedly criticized for its insecure [Accepted for publication in Soziale Welt] working conditions and precarious career paths, which can especially but not exclusively, negatively affect early careers (Bahr et al 2022;Dirnagl 2022).…”

Scientific Article Publication Training in Reputable International Journals

“…Increasing participants' understanding and ability in writing scientific articles in Nationally accredited journals and Scopus indexed (Zamista et al, 2021;Schneijderberg et al, 2022).…”