title: Publish or Perish mantra in the medical field: A systematic review of the reasons, consequences and remedies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Generally, academic promotions, job retention, job mobility, and professional development of a medical faculty members are judged primarily by the growth in publication outputs. Universities and research institutions are more likely to recruit and promote those academics carrying voluminous résumés with larger number of published articles. This review elaborates the causes and consequences of the pressure to publish and the ways and means to cope with this paradigm.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2015, database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, LISTA (EBSCO), Medline and Oxford University Library were searched for the English language full-text articles published during 2000-2015, by using MeSH terms "pressure to publish", "urge to publish", "research ethics", "plagiarism", "article retraction", "medical field". This search was further refined by selecting the articles in terms of relevancy and contents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This research showed that some universities offer generous grants to researchers with a high h-index and with more publications in elite journals, which promise an enhanced prospect of citations and elevation in the scientific rankings of the funding institutions. This generates an involuntary obsession to publish with the primary intention to obtain promotions, high scientific rankings, and improved job security. This compelling pressure to publish results in widespread publication of non-significant research with a high index of plagiarism that eventually leads to an increased frequency of retractions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Research centers and academic institutions have an obligation to train their academics in sound scientific writing and to apprise them of the publication ethics and the grave consequences of plagiarism and research misconduct.
authors.affiliation: Prof. Salman Y. Guraya, FRCS, Masters MedEd(Dundee). Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, College of Medicine, Taibah University, Almadinah Almunawwarah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Salman Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Guraya
authors.affiliation: Dr. Robert I. Norman, B.Sc, Ph.D. Academic Director, College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Physiology, University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.affiliation: Prof. Khalid I. Khoshhal, FRCS. Consultant Pediatric and Orthopedic Surgeon Vice Rector, Research and Graduate Studies, Taibah University, Almadinah Almunawwarah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Khalid I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Khoshhal
authors.affiliation: Dr. Shaista Salman Guraya, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Radiology, College of Medicine, Taibah University, Almadinah Almunawwarah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Shaista Salman
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Guraya
authors.affiliation: Dr. Antonello Forgione, MD. Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, Department of General and Emergency Surgery, NiguardaCàGranda Hospital, Director, AIMS Advanced International Mini-invasive Surgery Academy, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonello
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forgione
keywords: Academic publications; Medical field; Plagiarism; Pressure to publish; Research ethics; Retraction