title: The Inherent Drawbacks of the Pressure to Publish in Health Sciences: Good or Bad Science.
abstract: In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of scientific publications- it is the era of "hunting the article". This commentary discusses the drawbacks of the pressure to publish that certainly contribute to the 'dark side' of science. In fact, health science career progression greatly relies on the number of scientific publications a researcher has, and in many cases these may be more valorized than the health services provided. Of course, scientific publications help to develop the skills of health care professionals, but as Einstein highlighted " not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts".
authors.affiliation: Department of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; IINFACTS - Institute of Research and Advanced Training in Health Sciences and Technologies, Department of Sciences, Advanced Institute of Health Sciences - North (ISCS-N), CESPU, CRL, Gandra, Portugal; UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, Laboratory of Toxicology, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ricardo Jorge
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dinis-Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Magalhães
keywords: fraud; impact factor; open access and traditional journals; peer-review; pressure for publication