Julkaisupaine suomalaisessa tiedeyhteisössä

Performance-based research funding systems are often assumed to create an increasing pressure to publish among academics. Presumption is that national level incentives put pressure on researchers to increase quantity of publishing at the expense of quality. In Finland publications have been a criterion in the government’s basic funding model for universities since 2007. We analysed national personnel and publication data on Finnish universities, and found that the average publication productivity among Finnish university staff has not increased from 1998 to 2016. We also looked at the Web of Science publications in 1998-2014, and found that publication productivity of academics is not exceptionally high in Finland, compared to Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Citation impact has not remarkably decreased in Finland compared to the other Nordic countries. In our view, the experience of pressure to publish is also, and perhaps primarily, due to competition for research funding and academic positions partaken by an increasing number of researchers.