The phrase ‘publish or perish’ has been consistently debated across academia, including in tourism and hospitality management. This phenomenon’s effects on people’s careers and well-being have attracted intense attention (e.g., Ertaş & Kozak, 2020; Lee & Benjamin, 2023). I am a middle-career researcher focused on interdisciplinary tourism studies. In addition to considering the publish-or-perish culture, this viewpoint paper addresses two questions with which I have grappled since 2018: “Why should I do research in tourism? What are my goals if I am passionate about it?”
I was born in 1989 and have read and learned from seminal tourism research (published beginning in the 1970s) to determine how this field may integrate with the health sciences. Various ground-breaking papers (e.g., Cohen, 1979; Leiper, 1979; Pearce, 1979; Sessa, 1988) laid the foundation for the relatively young tourism discipline. These types of articles partly answer the question of “Why do research in tourism?”: they offer insights for tourism scholars as well as authors in adjacent disciplines who may use tourism as a study setting.
In 2022, McKercher and Dolnicar pondered if “10,752 journal articles per year [were] too many?” in the tourism literature. Multiple authors have also contemplated academic community respect (Dolnicar, 2019; Wen, Wang, & Kozak, 2020), the curse of conceptual research in tourism (Kirillova & Yang, 2022), and the death of tourism scholarship (Lee & Benjamin, 2023). I believe the publish-or-perish culture is still pervasive, even though researchers tend to recognize its myriad consequences for academic community development. A more urgent question is then “How should we deal with the publish-or-perish culture in the academic community on an individual level?” Advocating for faculty change appears increasingly difficult (Tagg, 2012). The publish-or-perish culture seems to have been ‘perfectly’ designed for people seeking to enter academia after earning a PhD or for early-career scholars fighting for the job security that comes with tenure. In the latter case, their research performance is important (but not the sole criterion) in performance evaluations.
I started my academic career without a strict plan and dabbled in different formats (e.g., full articles, research notes, letters to editors, viewpoints, research protocols) to find my passions. My research mentors supported this personal exploration, knowing my inspiration comes from many places. For example, I have never been able to shake the childhood memory of a young mother sobbing after her child was kidnapped; it has led me to examine human trafficking in the global tourism and hospitality industry. Most people assume that this industry is inherently pleasant: service workers are meant to deliver happiness. But what about sex trafficking, labour exploitation, and other issues? I have also taken note of racism, especially following the emergence of COVID-19. Some media outlets were initially warning the public to “stay away from the Chinese and Chinese kids…” As a person of Chinese descent living in Australia, I hope to help dispel this misconception—particularly because I worry that my children might face judgment as they grow up. In addition, I have observed my parents’ generation face travel constraints upon retirement: they often struggle to coordinate overseas trips without assistance from others. My grandmother, who has been ill for years, has a fairly poor quality of life. Seeing her reinforces my desire to reach those in need of support, namely so they may enjoy a higher-quality life through travel.
I chose to pursue a research career in tourism management and am compelled to contribute to society. I particularly intend to highlight tourism as a unique context for the health sciences. Bringing personally relevant aims into my projects has lessened my anxieties about the publish-or-perish culture, my research performance, or tenure.
I do not think this culture or associated policies should restrict one’s research endeavours. Rather, I would advise early-career researchers to find meaning and a sense of achievement in their work; doing so will certainly help them thrive and cultivate productive careers. They may be surprised by what happens when they follow their heart. I truly admire tourism scholars whose research has been featured in top international journals. For instance, Professor Ralf Buckley (Griffith University, Australia) has published in Nature (Buckley & Brough, 2021; Buckley, Chauvenet, & Underdahl, 2023; Buckley, Zhong, & Cooper, 2022) and Nature Communications (Buckley et al., 2019). I am also pleased to see that tourism has served as a study context in New England Journal of Medicine (Freedman et al., 2016) with regards to medical considerations before travelling. Much remains to be uncovered as we continue performing innovative research to improve our academic community and greater society.
References
Buckley, R., & Brough, P. (2021). Mental health: Set up long-term cohort studies. Nature, 595(7867), 352-352.
Buckley, R., Brough, P., Hague, L., Chauvenet, A., Fleming, C., Roche, E., ... & Harris, N. (2019). Economic value of protected areas via visitor mental health. Nature Communications, 10(1), 5005.
Buckley, R., Chauvenet, A., & Underdahl, S. (2023). COP15: Escalating tourism threatens park conservation. Nature, 613(7945), 629-629.
Buckley, R., Zhong, L., & Cooper, M. A. (2022). Mental health and nature: More implementation research needed. Nature, 612(7938), 33.
Cohen, E. (1979). Rethinking the sociology of tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 6(1), 18-35.
Dolnicar, S. (2019). Brilliance is succinct: Embrace and respect the short communication. Annals of Tourism Research, 76, 290.
Ertaş, M., & Kozak, M. (2020). Publish or perish: The proportion of articles versus additional sections in tourism and hospitality journals. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 43, 149-156.
Freedman, D., Chen, L., & Kozarsky, P. (2016). Medical considerations before international travel. New England Journal of Medicine, 375(3), 247-260.
Kirillova, K., & Yang, I. (2022). The curse of conceptual research in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 93, 103368.
Lee, K., & Benjamin, S. (2023). The death of tourism scholarship… unless… Annals of Tourism Research, 98, 103520.
Leiper, N. (1979). The framework of tourism: Towards a definition of tourism, tourist, and the tourist industry. Annals of Tourism Research, 6(4), 390-407.
McKercher, B., & Dolnicar, S. (2022). Are 10,752 journal articles per year too many? Annals of Tourism Research, 94, 103398.
Pearce, D. (1979). Towards a geography of tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 6(3), 245-272.
Sessa, A. (1988). The science of systems for tourism development. Annals of Tourism Research, 15(2), 219-235.
Tagg, J. (2012). Why does the faculty resist change? Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 44(1), 6-15.
Wen, J., Wang, W., & Kozak, M. (2020). Small but mighty: A newfound respect for brief research communications. Annals of Tourism Research, 84, 102970.
Jun Wen, Ph.D
Email: j.wen@ecu.edu.au
Dr Jun Wen is a lecturer in tourism and hospitality management in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University. His current research interests lie in global health, tourism marketing, and travel medicine.