The new look at perceived publication pressure comes from Zuyderland Medical Center and the University of Groningen, both in the Netherlands. The European Journal of Radiology presents the study in its May edition.
For the study, Robert Kwee, MD, PhD, and co-investigators sent surveys to researchers who were listed as corresponding authors in any of 12 general radiology journals bearing competitive impact factors in 2023. A few more than 200 invitees returned completed surveys.
Breaking the responses into demographic subgroupings, the team found researchers with the highest levels of perceived publication stress had three characteristics in common. They were females of 25 to 34 years of age with 5 to 10 years of research experience.
The study is noteworthy since publication pressure can aggravate workplace burnout—and tempt sufferers to commit publication fraud. Examples of the latter include selectively reporting findings, plagiarizing other researchers, fabricating or falsifying findings, and “double-dipping,” in which researchers stealthily repurpose portions of their own prior work for different journals.
