title: Analyzing the Publish-or-Perish Paradigm with Game Theory: The Prisoner's Dilemma and a Possible Escape.
abstract: The publish-or-perish paradigm is a prevailing facet of science. We apply game theory to show that, under rather weak assumptions, this publication scenario takes the form of a prisoner's dilemma, which constitutes a substantial obstacle to beneficial delayed publication of more complete results. One way of avoiding this obstacle while allowing researchers to establish priority of discoveries would be an updated "pli cacheté", a sealed envelope concept from the 1700s. We describe institutional rules that could additionally favour high-quality work and publications and provide examples of such policies that are already in place. Our analysis should be extended to other publication scenarios and the role of other stakeholders such as scientific journals or sponsors.
authors.affiliation: Institute and Policlinic for Occupational Medicine, Environmental Medicine and Prevention Research, University of Cologne, Kerpener Str. 61, 50938, Cologne, Germany. tim.erren@uni-koeln.de.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Erren
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Institute and Policlinic for Occupational Medicine, Environmental Medicine and Prevention Research, University of Cologne, Kerpener Str. 61, 50938, Cologne, Germany.|Institute for Occupational Epidemiology and Risk Assessment (IERA), Evonik Industries AG, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Morfeld
mesh_terms: D005716:Game Theory; D000068956:Prisoner Dilemma; D011643:Publishing / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards
keywords: Game theory; Pli cacheté; Priority; Prisoner’s dilemma; Publish-or perish; Quality