{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T00:11:28Z","timestamp":1771459888591,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,18]],"date-time":"2017-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1505692800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["AJIM"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,9,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to examine researchers\u2019 motivations to publish by comparing different career stages (PhD students; temporarily employed postdocs\/new professors; scholars with permanent employment) with regard to epistemic, pragmatic, and personal motives.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This qualitative analysis is mainly based on semi-structured narrative interviews with 91 researchers in the humanities, social, and natural sciences, based at six renowned (anonymous) universities in Germany, the UK, and the USA. These narratives contain answers to the direct question \u201cwhy do you publish?\u201d as well as remarks on motivations to publish in relation to other questions and themes. The interdisciplinary interpretation is based on both sociological science studies and philosophy of science in practice.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>At each career stage, epistemic, pragmatic, and personal motivations to publish are weighed differently. Confirming earlier studies, the authors find that PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in temporary positions mainly feel pressured to publish for career-related reasons. However, across status groups, researchers also want to publish in order to support collective knowledge generation.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The sample of interviewees may be biased toward those interested in reflecting on their day-to-day work.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Social implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Continuous and collective reflection is imperative for preventing uncritical internalization of pragmatic reasons to publish. Creating occasions for reflection is a task not only of researchers themselves, but also of administrators, funders, and other stakeholders.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Most studies have illuminated <jats:italic>how<\/jats:italic> researchers publish while adapting to or growing into the contemporary publish-or-perish culture. This paper addresses the rarely asked question <jats:italic>why<\/jats:italic> researchers publish at all.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/ajim-01-2017-0019","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,8,18]],"date-time":"2017-08-18T07:21:02Z","timestamp":1503040862000},"page":"529-544","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":50,"title":["Why do you publish? 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