Trends in Publication in the Race for World Class University: The Case of Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan’s government has launched policies rewarding universities for their faculty’s publication rates in journals listed in the Social Science Citation Index or the Taiwan Social Science Citation Index with the goal of improving international visibility and global competitiveness. Consequently, a “publish or perish” situation has arisen, affecting university hiring, promotion, and reward systems across disciplines. This article illustrates how higher education policies re-oriented faculty research performance in two departments – anthropology and education policy – within one national university in Taiwan. In each department, faculty journal publication rates were calculated for 1993, 2003, and 2013. Then, in-depth interviews were conducted among senior faculty. Research findings indicate that Taiwan’s new higher education policies have impacted academic culture and research practices in the social sciences and humanities. Although faculty visibility via publication has improved, this may be at the expense of local impact and social relevance.