Academics shun books in favour of journal articles

Should also recognize the shifting market for scholarly monographs. A lot of work can no longer be published in book form because publishers (both commercial and university presses) don't want to take the financial risk. There are push as well as pull factors operating here.

"A further question is whether academics have turned towards journal articles because they believe they will be more successful in research assessments, or whether the increase in submitted journal articles is part of a wider shift in academia." The reasons colleagues and i are concentrating on journal articles rather than other forms of publications are: 1. The bureaucrats who decide on REF submissions, and therefore who can progress in their careers, tell us only journal articles matter. This is mainly because they don't bother to read what we write, and rely on the spurious ranking of journals instead. 2. Teaching and admins loads have risen so much nobody has time to write a book unless they get a sabbatical, and even then one semester probably isn't enough.

I think that the rise of the 'short monograph' amongst scholarly publishers - the 20,000-50,000 hybrid of article and book might become the avenue of choice for REF submissions in a range of social science and humanities. The problem with books is they count as only one or two 'outputs' when the work can be substantial (5 years + for a good one).

Here's another potential reason. I've had 10 books published with global sales. Zero submitted to REF. Reason? Your guess. But I have heard the following type of comment from innumerable 'academics' ... 'well, books aren't proper research are they'. This usually from Doctors or Professors who have published articles that have been read by them, the reviewers ... and pretty much no one else. And for those readers now saying 'sour grapes', think again. I don't write my books for 'academic glory', I couldn't care less about REF, and I'm not a career academic - but on behalf of students, maybe academia should recognise the value of books in education.