You Know How You Feel Overwhelmed With Content on Social Media? Well, a Similar Thing Is Happening in Science.
The scientific community is facing a growing imbalance between the volume of manuscripts submitted for publication and the capacity of peer reviewers to evaluate them. This surge in submissions, driven by publishing incentives and the expansion of open-access journals, risks weakening the quality and reliability of scientific research. As a result, peer review is becoming slower and more strained, threatening the integrity of scientific progress.
- ▪The number of published scientific articles increased by nearly 50 percent between 2016 and 2022, outpacing growth in research budgets and workforce size.
- ▪Major publishers now host around 50,000 journals, many fueled by open-access models where authors pay to publish.
- ▪Academic institutions often tie funding, prestige, and career advancement to publishing metrics, encouraging high output over quality.
- ▪Some researchers now publish 50 to 100 papers a year, reflecting systemic pressures rather than necessarily fraudulent behavior.
- ▪The expansion of scientific publishing mirrors broader 'contentification' trends seen in social media and digital content creation.
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Science Publish and Perish I’m the editor in chief of a scientific journal. There’s a disastrous imbalance happening with the labor around manuscripts. By Steve Midway May 03, 202610:00 AM Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Olga Yastremska/iStock/Getty Images Plus and wabeno/iStock/Getty Images Plus. Copy Link Share Share Comment Copy Link Share Share Comment Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Recently, an ordinary manuscript landed on my desk. Nothing flashy—the solid work that represents another brick in the wall of science. The hard part wasn’t deciding whether it belonged in a journal that I oversee as editor in chief. The hard part was finding anyone willing to review it.
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