Do you really want to be a professor in a research university? If so, you must do your research, disseminate it, and train students.

In an earlier post (Academic Dogs), it was pointed out how a large fraction of doctoral recipients never publish anything. If you include just one article in any journal, it must hit 4/5th or more.

If a dissertation is worthy of a PhD, it surely should be worth publishing an article from it, or at least lead to articles from subsequent work.  Now, large research universities produce hundreds of recipients of doctoral degrees that are focused on research (usually, PhDs).

My impression is that the main decent journals in each field would be overwhelmed if every PhD had to be accompanied by one published research article drawn from the research. Perhaps I am wrong.

[I am leaving out professional doctorates, MD, DDS, JD, DSW, EdD, ... , which are not in general serious research degrees.]


If you do not see yourself as contributing to the research literature, for the next 15-30 years, but you need the kind of training provided by the PhD, don't take a job that then requires you to do research and publish.