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 Edward Chiao
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The intense pressure to publish or perish is familiar to history
writers Stephen Ambrose, Joseph Ellis, Doris Kearns Goodwin and
David McCullough. These famous writers have all been recently
exposed as having either lied, plagiarized or misquoted others in
their quest to become the next bestseller.
Ambrose and Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize winner, both plagiarized
portions of their text, while Ellis constructed fictional anecdotes
and passed them off as his own past. McCullough, author of the
current bestselling biography “John Adams,” falsely
quoted Thomas Jefferson.
The actions of these authors are disappointing and call into
question the integrity and motive of today’s scholars. It
also raises concern about the emphasis placed on publishing faster
and more often, regardless of the cost on in-depth research and
quality. This is particularly disturbing when it concerns academics
who write our history, which we use to define the conditions of
present society and our decisions concerning the future. Writers
who lie and copy material should be reprimanded and their actions
made public.
Unfortunately, when academic scholars do try to place quality of
research over the pressure to publish, universities often consider
them unprofitable.
Former UCLA geography professor Joshua Muldavin fell victim to
this process when he was denied tenure last year. While Muldavin
was a popular and highly effective professor in his six years at
UCLA, he failed to publish enough research and he studied subject
matter that would not have garnered UCLA enough prestige or revenue
in the eyes of his peers.
Universities have the potential to correct the decline of
academic quality. Instead of focusing on prestige and firing
professors if they don’t publish shallow, shoddy work faster,
they should allow scholars to push the limit of their intellectual
abilities.