Publish or Perish: Need to have another look?

Publish or Perish has been the driving force for the academicians, faculty members to publish and thus contribute to the medical literature besides promoting the research culture in their respective institutions. However, in view of some recent developments during the last couple of years, it has become essential to have another look on this. Number of publication has played a vital role in the selection, appointment, promotions and approval of research grants for the faculty members and research scientists. However, now increasing number of publications from medical institutions in India, Pakistan and many other developing countries are coming out of compulsion. The main objective of the authors seems to be for selection, increments, career advancement, assessments for seeking higher qualifications like M. Phil and PhD. Now there seems to be desperation to publish and temptation to explore short cuts and easy ways. In fact it should be the quality of research and publications rather than quantity of publications which should matter. 1 Pressure to publish is also leading to scientific fraud. Some scientists are willing to disregard scientific integrity in order to publish. For example leading publications like Nature, Science and Cell with high Impact Factors have amongst the highest rates of retraction. Peer reviewers can only study the present results but it is not always possible to detect fraudulent results. Moreover, peer reviewers can also be fooled by the fraudulent results.2 This Editorial