LETTERS Date: May 30, 1988
Too Many Papers I would like to express my enthusiastic agreement with the letter from Jeanne F. Loring (May 2, 1988, p. 9). All my colleagues and I are troubled by the rapidly increasing number of articles we’d like to read. As Loring points out, simply scanning the titles of potentially interesting articles in potentially interesting journals can no longer be done in a satisfactory way.
Like Loring, I know scientists who publish 50 or more (in some cases over 100) articles per year. Can you imagine that? An article every other day! While Loring’s proposed limit of three articles per year may be a bit on the low side, it seems to me that the concept of a limit is a useful one. Perhaps the granting agencies could emphasize in their guidelines that publication quality as well as quantity is important in evaluating grant ...
